Cyclic olefin polymer as a novel membrane material for membrane distillation applications M. Sabzekara,b, M. Pourafshari Chenara,*, Z. Maghsouda, O. Mostaghisic, M.C. García-Payob, M. Khayetb,d,* a Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran b Department of Structure of Matter, Thermal Physics and Electronics, Faculty of Physics, University Complutense of Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain c Sarkhoon Gas Refinery Company, Bandar abbas, Iran d Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Water (IMDEA Water Institute), Avda. Punto Com no. 2, Alcalá de Henares, 28805 Madrid, Spain * Corresponding authors:
[email protected] (M. Khayet)
[email protected] (M. Pourafshari Chenar) 1 Abstract A first attempt was made to prepare cyclic olefin polymer/copolymer (COP/COC) flat-sheet porous membranes by the well-known non-solvent induced phase separation method. In this study, two solvents (chloroform and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene), different additives (polyvinylpyrrolidone, PVP, polyethylene glycol, PEG400, polyethylene oxide, PEO, and Sorbitan monooleate, Span 80) and coagulants (acetone and 70/30 wt% acetone/water mixture) were employed. The prepared membranes were characterized in terms of the thickness (70 - 85 µm), porosity (~50 - 80%), liquid entry pressure (1.16 - 4.55 bar), water contact angle (~86º - 111º), mean pore size (158 – 265 nm), mechanical properties (tensile strength: 0.74 -5.51 MPa, elongation at break: 3.34% -7.94% and Young´s modulus: 29 – 237 MPa), morphological and topographical characteristics. Short-term direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) tests showed maximum permeate fluxes of 20 kg.m- 2h-1 and 15 kg.m-2h-1 when using as feed distilled water and 30 g/L sodium chloride aqueous solution, respectively, with a high salt separation factor (99.99%).