Preparation and characterization of aluminum oxide cermet microfiltration membrane using atmospheric plasma spraying

To explore a cost-effective method to fabric inorganic membrane, a cermet membrane is developed as the first attempt in our series studies to prepare macroporous membranes using atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) technique. These membranes consist of α-Al2O3 particles in metal binders of Ni and Cr. The effects of plasma power and spraying distance on the performance of the prepared cermet membranes were investigated. Properties of the prepared membranes such as phase transformation, element analysis, structure morphology, pore size, porosity, combination ability and filtration performance were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), bubble point test (BPT), binary gray-scale image technique, ultrasonic vibration and dead-end filtration test, respectively. Evaluations of the preparation procedure using APS and comparison of performance characteristics of the prepared cermet membranes with commercial inorganic membrane demonstrated that APS is a promising technique for preparing macroporous inorganic membranes with the potential for cost-effective, energy-efficient and large-scale fabrication.