Robust omniphobic ceramic hollow fibre membrane with leaf-like copper oxide hierarchical structure by membrane distillation

Omniphobic membranes have recently shown promising performance in water desalination using MD due to their ability to repel all liquid drop types and keep the membrane surface dry. This study successfully modified the surface of robust hydrophilic mullite-stainless steel hollow fibre membranes (M-SS HFMs) to omniphobic properties. The omniphobic layer was achieved through surface grafting with copper oxide (CuO) rough layer by a hydrothermal technique at different hydrothermal reaction times of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 h, followed by fluorination step using 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorode-cyltriethoxysilane (C8, 97 %). Next, the omniphobic membranes were characterized in terms of membrane morphology, roughness, mechanical strength, pore size/distribution, liquid entry pressure, contact angle and fouling accumulation. The prepared omniphobic M-SS HFMs were also tested through the DCMD system at 80 °C using a feed solution containing 35 g/L of NaCl and 10 mg/L of humic acid as a foulant agent. The results indicated that M-SS HFMs subjected to a 4 h hydrothermal reaction time, resulting in a leaf-like surface structure, exhibited superior characteristics compared to other omniphobic HFMs reported in the literature that used titania (SiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), and cobalt (Co3O4) as roughing material. These superior features included higher roughness of 0.798 μm, liquid entry pressure of 5.40 bar, and enhanced liquid repellence and contact angles towards DI water of 167°, olive oil of 152°, and ethanol of 145°. Additionally, the M-SS HFMs at 4 h hydrothermal demonstrated remarkable performance in terms of rejection performance (99.99 %) and vapour flux stability of about 29 kg/m2.h in DCMD operations, surpassing the performance of omniphobic HFMs fabricated using mullite-ball clay, mullite-kaolinite, and alumina (Al2O3). Notably, no fouling/wetting on the membrane surface and elements leaching was observed throughout the MD operation. These findings highlight the potential of this omniphobic HFM for seawater desalination using DCMD systems, even in the presence of organic contaminants.