Abstract
Superhydrophilic membranes have great advantages in the case of high filtration performance (depending on the low resistance to water flow) and supplied capillary pressure (depending on the hydrophilic nature of the filtration layer). This study focuses on the fabrication of a low cost superhydrophilic membrane filter and its characterization by means of microstructure evaluation and filtration performances. A tubular type substrate was obtained via the extrusion method using unprocessed perlite, and various samples of the green bodies were sintered at different temperatures of 1000 degrees C, 1025 degrees C and 1050 degrees C and over different periods of 1 h, 3 h, and 6 h. The coating layer was deposited via filtration coating using grained frit glass and was sintered at different temperatures (630-660 degrees C) for 10 min. Sintering at 645 degrees C for 10 min leads to the fabrication of superhydrophilic filtration layer with a water contact angle of 8 degrees. The filtration results indicated that the marble plant wastewater contains both micron and sub-micron sized dolomite particles, which could be cleared to 0.35 NTU without any membrane clogging during periodic filtration. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.