High-flux ceramic membrane derived from UV-curable slurry for efficient separation of nanoparticles suspension

Ceramic membranes with high performance have been increasingly applied in the process industry. In this study, a rapid construction process was proposed for preparing high-flux ceramic membranes by UV-curable slurry. Two different alumina powders were well dispersed to enable the dip-coating of interlayer and top layer, respectively, on a 3D printed microporous support. After the coating of interlayer and top layer, a rapid UV curing process was applied, which was completed within 30 s, as opposed to the traditional drying process of more than 10 h for each layer. Additionally, the dual-layer was formed by a one-step co-sintering instead of conventional separate sintering. The effects of coating time on the thickness of interlayer and top layer, as well as the performance of ceramic membranes, were systematically studied. The optimized dual-layer ceramic membrane exhibited a uniform pore size distribution with an average pore size of about 108 nm, and high pure water permeance of 1220 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1. The high-flux ceramic membranes exhibited a good performance in the separation of nanoparticles from water suspensions. In the filtration of CeO2 suspension, the permeance was as high as 850 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1, and the dispersed nanoparticles were almost completely removed.