Preparation of a Porous, Sintered and Reaction-Bonded Si₃N₄ (SRBSN) Planar Membrane for Filtration of an Oil-in-Water Emulsion with High Flux Performance

Lin Li; Er-Ze Gao; Hamidreza Abadikhah; Jun-Wei Wang; Lu-Yuan Hao; Xin Xu; Simeon Agathopoulos

doi:10.3390/ma11060990

Preparation of a Porous, Sintered and Reaction-Bonded Si₃N₄ (SRBSN) Planar Membrane for Filtration of an Oil-in-Water Emulsion with High Flux Performance

Materials (Basel). 2018 Jun 11;11(6):990. doi: 10.3390/ma11060990.

Authors

Lin Li¹, Er-Ze Gao², Hamidreza Abadikhah³, Jun-Wei Wang⁴, Lu-Yuan Hao⁵, Xin Xu⁶, Simeon Agathopoulos⁷

Affiliations

¹ Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
² Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
³ Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
⁴ Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
⁵ Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
⁶ Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. [email protected].
⁷ Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Ioannina, GR-451 10 Ioannina, Greece. [email protected].

Abstract

A porous, sintered, and reaction-bonded Si₃N₄ (SRBSN) planar membrane was prepared by phase-inversion tape-casting, nitridation (at 1350 °C), and sintering (at 1650 °C) of silicon slurry. The membrane was comprised of uniform rod-like β-Si₃N₄ crystals with a large length/diameter ratio and had high porosity and bending strength. The prepared membrane features a typical asymmetric structure with a skin layer, a sponge layer, and finger-like voids and an average pore size of 0.61 μm. A high permeation flux of 367 L m^−2 h^−1 and an oil rejection of 88.6% were recorded in oil-in-water emulsion separation experiments. These results suggest that SRBSN membranes have excellent potential for the treatment of oily wastewater.

Keywords: SRBSN; membrane filtration; oil–water separation; porous ceramic.