Removal of aqueous nC60 fullerene from water by low pressure membrane filtration

“The potential environmental and health risks of engineered nanoparticles such as buckminsterfullerene
C60 in water require their removal during the production of drinking water. We present a study focusing
on (i) the removal mechanism and (ii) the elucidation of the role of the membrane pore size during
removal of nC60 fullerene nanoparticle suspensions in dead-end microfiltration and ultrafiltration
mimicking separation in real industrial water treatment plants. Membranes were selected with pore
sizes ranging from 18 nm to 500 nm to determine the significance of the nC60 to membrane pore size
ratio and the adsorption affinity between nC60 and membrane material during filtration. Experiments
were carried out with a dead-end bench-scale system operated at constant flux conditions including a
hydraulic backwash cleaning procedure. nC60 nanoparticles can be efficiently removed by low pressure
membrane technology with smaller and, unexpectedly, also by mostly similar or larger pores than the
particle size, although the nC60 filtration behaviour appeared to be different. The nC60 size to membrane
pore size ratio and the ratio of the cake-layer deposition resistance to the clean membrane resistance,
both play an important role on the nC60 filtration behaviour and on the efficiency of the backwash
procedure recovering the initial membrane filtration conditions. These results become specifically significant
in the context of drinking water production, for which they provide relevant information for an
accurate selection between membrane processes and operational parameters for the removal of nC60 in
the drinking water treatment.”

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(Citaat: Floris, R., Nijmeijer, K., Cornelissen, E.R. Removal of aqueous nC60 fullerene from water by low pressure membrane filtration – Water Research 91(2016), p.115-125)