BUCKY PAPER MEMBRANES

Preparation, characterization and water permeability of MWNT Bucky paper membranes

Preparation, characterization and water permeability of MWNT Bucky paper membranes

Introduction

There are many purification techniques for water and gas which includes reverse osmosis, CO2 removal from natural gas, membrane distillation and all these techniques are reliant on membranes. Advanced membrane technologies are being developed with novel pore and controlled architecture which is essential for cost effective and efficient way of purification. The polymeric membrane suffers from the tradeoff between permeability and selectivity and also including susceptible.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of membranes have interesting emerging structure which provides possible directions to eradicate these shortcomings. CNTs are rolled-up nanoscale cylinders and its shape is flexible which means that it can be capped from both the ends with half fullerene. The dimension of a single walled CNT's includes 1-3nm in the outer diameters and 0.4-2.4nm in the inner diameters.

On the other hand is Multi-walled CNT's who diameters range from 2nm to 100 nm. The 100nm dimension includes tens of walls and is also known as double walled nanotubes. CNT's are the strongest fibers known because it releases extraordinary thermal and electrical conductivity. This property of CNT's and their dimensions have both combined to have a intensive study for a broad variety of applications. Despite of this fact, the fabricating macroscopic structures are posing challenges because of their controlled geometries, pore shape and porosity.

The purpose of the paper is to review 2 types of structures which are CNT macroscopic and are utilized for the application of membranes. Isoporous and Bucky paper are the two applications. The CNT membranes mentioned above are very different from each other. They have different structures of the CNT, arrangement and nature. There is woven structure of the CNT's in Bucky paper and they are haphazardly set as well. Because of this formation and structure, it creates a 3D network which is highly absorbent with a big specified surface area.

On the other hand, isoporous CNT membranes utilizes aligned CNT's in cylindrical pores across. The membranes used in isoporous CNT have a diameter which is not defined in a proper manner. In this research we will try to review various solutions and techniques for the formulation of two types of CNT membranes. We have denied these membranes above; we will also take into account the challenges being faced. The final dispensing steps will also be discussed in this paper which affects the membrane structure directly. Moreover, in this paper we will also discuss the applications related to water and gas separation.

Bucky-Paper Membranes

Bucky papers are simple to prepare and that is the reason it was the first macroscopic structures which were fabricated from CNT's. The mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of Bucky papers have studied extensively. The randomly intertwined CNT's mat which is prepared by filtrations is known as Bucky paper. The CNT's are famous for its strong togetherness which is because of its Vander Waals interactions. These walls are also responsible for holding the CNT's in a ...