ZHANG Xiaozhen, SUO Shuaifeng, JIANG Yuhua, HU Xuebing, QIU Wenchen, ZHOU Jianer

(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Universities for Inorganic Membrane, Jingdezhen CeramicInstitute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: Porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) hollow fiber membrane for ultrafiltration (UF) was fabricated by the phase inversion method using the mixture of three ultrafine powders with different particle size distributions as the raw materials. The prepared UF membrane was employed to separate heavy metal ions from wastewater in a polymer-enhanced UF process. The effect of sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) to metal ion (S/M) ratio on the separation performance of heavy metal ions was investigated. YSZ hollow fiber UF membranes with high permeability and bending strength can be obtained when sintered at 1340-1380 °C for 2 h. The prepared ceramic UF membrane exhibits a typical porous asymmetrical structure, consisting of the inner and outer porous skin layers and large finger-like pores in the middle. The polymer-enhanced UF experiments with samples sintered at 1340 °C for 2 h showed that high Cd²⁺ rejection rate of 96.2% and high water flux of 0.25 m3/(m2 • h • bar) can be achieved by optimizing the S/M ratio. The prepared membrane also shows high Ni²⁺ and Cu²⁺ ion rejection rates of 92.6% and 94.5%, respectively.

Key words: Yttria-stabilized zirconia; Hollow fiber ceramic membrane; Ultrafiltration; Phase inversion method; Heavy metal ion