Self‐supported single‐wall carbon nanotube buckypaper membranes applied to air and water filtration

Abstract

Abstract Background This work addresses the use of self‐supported single‐wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) buckypapers as filters or membranes to treat air or water streams to reduce the concentration of pollutants. Results The fabrication of the buckypapers was carried out by a facile filtration method. The performance of the buckypaper as an air filter was tested with a NaCl aerosol obtaining a permeance of 241 m 3 m −2 h −1 bar −1 and a filtration efficiency of 99.9991%. The performance of the buckypaper as a water ultrafiltration (UF) membrane was studied separating ZIF‐8 nanoparticles of 30, 50 and 120 nm in diameter, achieving a permeance of 124 L·m −2 h −1 bar −1 and a rejection of 99.99%. Conclusions A simple technique is described for the rapid fabrication of self‐supported SWCNT buckypaper membranes with a filtration method resulting in an excellent performance in both air and water filtration. In addition, because of the acquired control of ZIF‐8 crystallization, particles of different sizes of this material were synthesized ad hoc to serve as a reference solute of UF separation. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).