Investigation of Sol-gel assisted Functionalized Membranes for Industrial Applications

The preparation of eco-friendly, simple, scalable functionalized membranes derived from various natural materials is gaining more attention in oil/water separation, fouling reduction, and Reaction Control and Energy Conversion research areas. Conventional membrane modification methods such as spray coating, dip-coating methods with nanomaterials have been reported in the literature. However, insufficient surface modifications decrease the functionality of the membrane. Another challenge is that the physical surface deposition of nanomaterial often inevitably causes extra mass transfer resistance and reduces the membranes' water permeability. We propose rice-husk-assisted sol-gel coating methods, requiring less expensive chemicals and easy modifying the smooth surfaces. Based on our approach, we can control the membranes' various properties, including porosity, hydrophobicity, hydrophobicity, and electrical conductivity of the membrane. In addition to that depends on the sol-gel (metal oxides nanomaterial) coating, the biofouling property of the membrane can be fine-tuned. Recently, we conducted few preliminary studies with our new approach, and we obtained very promising results.