Advancing hydrophobic desalination membranes using initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) v/

Hydrophobic membranes are the central component of membrane distillation (MD) desalination systems. Optimizing their design is crucial for efficient desalination. There are many requirements on MD membranes. These include high liquid entry pressure (LEP) and high permeability to water vapor. There are many available manufacturing methods for producing hydrophobic membranes. An important subset of these methods use surface modification to prepare hydrophobic composite membranes. The many options for MD membrane design results in lack of consensus about how to achieve optimal performance. In this thesis we use initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to study how surface modification parameters and membrane morphology contribute to MD membrane performance. We introduce new models and analysis methods to support experimental results. This work informs hydrophobic MD membrane design by clarifying the roles of different membrane elements. By advancing MD technology, we increase capacity to produce fresh water for society.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Servi, Amelia Tepper

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen K. Gleason.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104218

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/104218