(505f) Bendable Ceramic Paper Membranes

Advanced porous membranes are of significant importance to dozens of industries including chemicals, oil and gas, automobiles, batteries, semiconductors, food and beverage, biotech and pharmaceutics, waste treatment, environmental protection and remediation by means of filtration or separation. Organic polymeric membranes currently dominate these markets due to their bendable feature and relatively low manufacture cost; however, these organic polymeric membranes suffer from several drawbacks, such as low stability at elevated temperature, low stability in acids and bases, swelling in organic solvents, and fast degradation in oxidative environments. Ceramic membranes, with the advantages of high chemical, thermal and mechanical stability, should be the attractive alternatives to polymeric varieties; however, ceramic membranes have not been widely adopted due to their high manufacture cost, rigid structure, low packing density, and low throughput. It has been a long time dream to make a membrane with both the advantages of polymeric membranes and ceramic membranes.

The advantages of nanoscience and nanotechnology make such a dream a reality. Using titania nanowires, Novarials has developed a Bendable Ceramic Paper Membrane platform technology. Titania nanowires are thin strands having diameters in the range of about 10nm to about 100nm, and lengths of from a few microns to tens and even hundreds of microns. Titania nanowires are prepared by cost effective hydrothermal process, and the paper-like ceramic membranes are fabricated by wet laid process. The membranes are porous, bendable/flexible and sufficiently strong, suitable for nanofiltration and ultrafiltration. Potential advantages of these membranes are low manufacturing cost, high porosity, superior chemical and thermal stability and for TiO2, the ability to react with UV light to remove organic material. The presentation will provide detailed information of Novarials Bendable Ceramic Paper Membranes.