Composite Membranes for Desalination of Water by the Membrane Distillation Method
摘要
A method of forming a polymer coating on the surface of a polyethylene terephthalate track-etched membrane by electron-beam dispersion of polytetrafluoroethylene in vacuum is considered. It is shown that the modification of a track-etched membrane by this method leads to the formation of the composite membrane consisting of two layers, one of which represents the initial track-etched membrane characterized by an average-level water hydrophilicity. The angle of contact of water with this layer is 65 ± 1º. The other layer applied to the track-etched membrane has a wetting angle comprising, on average, 128.5 ± 1.3º, and it is highly hydrophobic in nature. An examination of the morphology of the coatings of membranes by the electron microscopy method has shown that they have a morphologically developed (textured) surface due to the formation of polymer nanostructures. It is shown that the membranes developed provide a high selectivity of separating an aqueous solution of sodium chloride in the case of its desalination by the membrane distillation method and can be used for the desalination of seawater.