Chemical vapor deposition of silicon carbide on alumina ultrafiltration membranes for filtration of microemulsions

Abstract

Worldwide, a considerable amount of oily wastewater is generated, with oil droplets from 2 to 200 nm that are difficult to separate because of their size and colloidal stability. This study presents a novel approach for effectively separating microemulsions via cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC)-coated alumina (Al
2O
3) membranes fabricated based on low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). SiC was deposited at a relatively low temperature at 860 °C on 100 nm Al
2O
3 membranes using two precursors: SiH
2Cl
2 and C
2H
2. With the increase in deposition time, up to 25 min, the pore size decreased from 41 nm to 33 nm, which is a smaller pore size of a SiC membrane than previously used for oil/water separation. The polycrystalline 3C-SiC-coated membranes showed improved hydrophilicity (water contact angle of 15°) and highly negatively charged surfaces (−65 mV). Microemulsion filtration experiments were carried out at a constant permeate flux (80 Lm
−2 h
−1) for six cycles with varying deposition time, pH, surfactant types, and pore sizes. The fouling of the SiC-coated membrane was, compared to the Al
2O
3 membrane, effectively mitigated due to the enhanced electrostatic repulsion and hydrophilicity. Surfactant adsorption mainly occurred when the surface charge of the microemulsion and the membranes were opposite. Therefore, the surface charge of the alumina membrane changed from positive to negative when soaked in negatively charged microemulsions, whereas SiC-coated membranes remained negatively charged regardless of surfactant type. The membrane fouling was alleviated when the membrane and oil droplets had the same charge. Lastly, the 62 nm SiC-coated membrane with 20 min coating time was the best choice for the filtration of the microemulsion, because of the high rejection of the oil droplets and low fouling tendency.