Interlayer-free Glucose Carbonised Template Silica Membranes for Brine Water Desalination

Abstract

Interlayer-free glucose carbonized template silica membranesbased on tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and glucose were successfullyprepared using an acid-base catalysed sol-gel method for artificial brinewater desalination (7.5% wt NaCl solution %) at temperatures range from25, 40 and 60 °C. These membranes calcined at 250 and 400 °C. Themembranes were fabricated through sol-gel process by using TEOS(tetraethyl orthosilicate); ethanol; nitric acid; ammonia; aquadest andglucose as a template. By molar ratio is 1: 38: 0.0007: 0.0003: 5 and0.25%; 0.5%, 1% w/v glucose as template. The results show the highestwater fluxes of 1.8, 2.2 and 4.8 kg m−2 h−1 for 25, 40 and 60 °Cdesalination process with excellent salt rejections of 99.5, 99.5 and 99.7%, respectively. It was found that the higher the NaCl solution temperature asfeed solution as well as glucose concentration (0.25% to 1% wt) astemplate attached in the silica matrixes, the higher water fluxes eventhough the salt rejection remain the same. This study demonstrates that theorganosilica membranes offered the carbonized silica mesostructuremembranes with excellent separation of water from the hydrated salt ions, particularly for processing brine salt solutions.