Materials Letters | 2019
Developing silica fume-based self-supported ECR-1 zeolite membrane for seawater desalination
Abstract
Abstract A low-cost self-supported ECR-1 zeolite membrane was synthesized by utilization of silica fume waste as stating material adjusted Si/Al molar ratio with metakaolin for the first time. XRD patterns confirmed that the amorphous geopolymer was entirely converted into self-supported ECR-1 zeolite membrane. FESEM microphoto indicated that the ECR-1 showed wheat-sheaf crystalline morphology with average aspect ratio of 5. The as-synthesized self-supported ECR-1 zeolite membrane exhibited an excellent seawater desalination performance. When the system was kept up the negative pressure of 0.08\u202fMPa, the rejections for mixed Na+, K+, Mg2+ Ca2+ and Cl− ions in simulated seawater averagely approached to 99.99%, 97.32%, 100%, 100% and 96.82%, respectively.