Modification of Tunisian clay membrane surface by silane grafting: Application for desalination with Air Gap Membrane Distillation process

New ceramic hydrophobic porous membranes were proposed for application in membranes distillation. Two kinds of hydrophobic membranes were prepared by grafting 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (C8 compound) on the Tunisian clay ceramic membranes with pore diameters of 0.18 μm and 15 nm. Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD) experiments were performed for seawater and aqueous solutions of sodium chloride as feed. The effect of the mean temperature, pore diameter of the membrane and salt concentration were studied. The water vapor permeability of the proposed membranes was determined. The new membranes seem to be promising in the field of membrane distillation. High salt rejection rates higher than 99% were obtained for both modified MF and UF ceramic clay membranes.

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► Elaboration of inorganic, composite, ceramic membranes.
► Desalination by Air Gap Membrane Distillation.
► Porous ceramic hydrophobic Tunisian clay membrane.
► Surface modified to change their hydrophilic feature into hydrophobic one.
► Grafting of fluoroalkylsilane into ultrafiltration Tunisian clay membrane.