Repository logo
 

Monodisperse CNT Microspheres for High Permeability and Efficiency Flow-Through Filtration Applications.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Copic, Davor 
Maggini, Laura 

Abstract

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based filters have the potential to revolutionize water treatment because of their high capacity and fast kinetics in sorption of organic, inorganic, and biological pollutants. To date, CNT filters either rely on CNTs dispersed in liquids, which are difficult to recover and cause safety concerns, or on CNT buckypaper, which offers high efficiency, but suffers from an intrinsic trade-off between filter permeability and capacity. Here, a new approach is presented that bypasses this trade-off and achieves buckypaper-like efficiency combined with filter-column-like permeability and capacity. For this, CNTs are first assembled into porous microspheres and then are packed into microfluidic column filters. These microcolumns exhibit large flow-through filtration efficiencies, while maintaining membrane permeabilities an order of magnitude larger then CNT buckypaper and specific permeabilities double that of activated carbon for similar flowrates (232 000 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 , 1.23 × 10-12 m2 ). Moreover, in a test to remove sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) from water, these microstructured CNT columns outperform activated carbon columns. This improved filtration efficiency and permeability is an important step toward a broader implementation of CNT-based filtration devices.

Description

Keywords

carbon nanotubes, column filters, microfluidics

Journal Title

Adv Mater

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0935-9648
1521-4095

Volume Title

30

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
European Research Council (337739)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (702435)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (660351)
European Commission (618250)