Novel metallic stainless-steel mesh-supported conductive membrane and its performance in the electro-filtration process

• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136160
• Publication Date: 2022-08-26T17:01:03Z
• Authors: Azeem Mushtaq; Hoon Cho; Hoyoung Ryu; Muhammad Ajaz Ahmed; Muhammad Saif Ur ...; Jong-In Han
• Keywords: Polymers; Electric Conductivity; Water; Membranes, Artificial; Chlorella; 02 engineering and technology; Stainless Steel; 0210 nano-technology; Filtration

In this study, we demonstrate the fabrication of a thoroughly metallic electro-conductive membrane by using simple filtration to uniformly coat AgNWs dispersion through stainless steel (SUS)-mesh, which functions both as filter and a flexible conductive substrate. The as-prepared AgNWs networks layer on the SUS-mesh was further strengthened by electroplating Ag layers (P-SUS membrane); exhibiting an overall electrical conductivity of 9.2 × 104 S/m, which is up to 42 times greater than the conductivity of pristine SUS-mesh. The P-SUS membrane exhibited adequate physical durability against chemical and mechanical stresses under prolonged filtration, and high pure water flux of 534 ± 54 LMH/bar. This electro-membrane displayed the anticipated flux recovery in harvesting microalgae (Chlorella sp. HS-2) when filtration was done with the membrane used as a cathode: micro-sized bubbles, generated from the cathodic membrane, functioned to detach the foulants and recover the relative flux to a significant level. The P-SUS membrane indeed possesses necessary traits that the polymer-support membrane lacks, in terms of not only electrical conductivity and mechanical strength but also filtration performance with anti-fouling capability, all of which are of necessity to be considered workable electroconductive membrane.