The procedure enables the fabrication of nanocomposite membranes filled with suitable amounts of exfoliated bidimensional crystals. These are obtained with an advanced wet-jet milling technique, which provides desired thickness and lateral size of nanofillers through the pulverization and colloidal homogenization of bulk nanomaterials. The bidimensional crystals are dispersed in fluids and suitably delivered inside polymeric matrixes exhibiting a singular morphology. The nanocomposite membranes work as active interfaces when equipping membrane distillation and membrane crystallization devices, thus yielding enhanced productivity-efficiency trade-off at low energy consumption. Fresh water can be produced in a larger amount while salt crystals much more uniform in size and shape can be recovered through the implementation of two membrane technologies greener and more sustainable than traditional ones.
Membrane distillation and membrane crystallization technologies provide substantial and eco-sustainable solutions to manage and reuse natural resources such as water and minerals from seawater, rivers and lakes. A scale up of these technologies on industrial size is actually limited by the scarcity on the market of membranes with suitable structural and chemical features enabling one to shift competitively the productivity-efficiency trade-off beyond the state of the art. This research wants to fill the gap existing between commercial membranes and new scalable-engineered 2D materials-enabled membranes easy to scale up. The innovation is the design of new membranes with complementary functions, which afford assisted separation mechanisms for more productive and fruitful water desalination through scalable, eco-sustainable and cost-effective membrane operations.
Italy