Nanofibrous membranes of Matrimid have been successfully fabricated using an electrospinning technique under optimized conditions. Nanofibrous membranes are found to be highly hydrophobic with a high water contact angle of 130°. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and pore size distribution analysis revealed the big pore size structure of electrospun membranes to be greater than 2 μm and the pore size distribution is found to be narrow. Flat sheet Matrimid membranes were fabricated via casting followed by phase inversion. The morphology, pore size distribution, and water contact angle were measured and compared with the electrospun membranes. Both membranes fabricated by electrospinning and phase inversion techniques were tested in a direct contact membrane distillation process. Electrospun membranes showed high water vapor flux of 56 kg/m2-h, which is very high compared to the casted membrane as well as most of the fabricated and commercially available highly hydrophobic membranes. ©2013 Desalination Publications.

Aromatic fluorinated polyoxadiazoles (F-POD) and polytriazoles (F-PT) were synthesized and for the first time manufactured into porous membranes by phase inversion and by electrospinning. The phase inversion F-POD membranes had a mean flow pore size (MFP) of 51nm, while for F-PT it was around 74nm. The electrospun membranes had a much larger pore size, the MFP for F-POD membrane was around 1.7μm and for F-PT it was 2.7μm. The membranes were tested for desalination of Red Sea water using direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). By combining the high polymer hydrophobicity and high porosity, apparent contact angles up to 162° were obtained, assuring the operation with practically no liquid water leakage under pressure up to 0.9bar. Salt selectivity as high as 99.95% and water fluxes as high as 85Lm -2h -1 were demonstrated, operating at 80°C feed temperature and 22°C permeate. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.