Effect of silica on flexibility of yttria-stabilized zirconia nanofibers for developing water purification membranes

The development of flexible ceramic nanofibers has attracted much attention because they may be able to overcome the intrinsic brittleness of ceramics and thus be applied towards air/water filtration media. Yttria-stabilized zirconia/silica (YSZ/silica) nanofibers with excellent flexibility could be prepared through (1) sol-gel, (2) electrospinning, and (3) calcination processes. Our research focused on the effect of ceramic precursor concentrations [tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and zirconium (IV) propoxide (ZrP)] on improving the flexibility of YSZ/silica nanofibers. By adjusting the TEOS and ZrP concentrations, two major parameters (grain size and fiber diameter, respectively) can be controlled. It was consequently revealed that smaller grain size and larger fiber diameter could increase the flexibility of YSZ/silica nanofibers. In addition, flexible YSZ/silica nanofibers successfully performed as microfiltration (MF) membranes, while exhibiting high pure water permeability and a high rejection rate (%) for polymeric nanoparticles.

柔性陶瓷纳米纤维的开发引起了很多关注，因为它们可以克服陶瓷固有的脆性，因此可以应用于空气/水过滤介质。可以通过（1）溶胶-凝胶，（2）电纺丝和（3）煅烧工艺制备具有优异柔韧性的氧化钇稳定的氧化锆/二氧化硅（YSZ /二氧化硅）纳米纤维。我们的研究集中在陶瓷前驱体浓度[原硅酸四乙酯（TEOS）和丙氧化锆（IV）（ZrP）]对改善YSZ /二氧化硅纳米纤维的柔韧性的影响上。通过调节TEOS和ZrP浓度，可以控制两个主要参数（分别为晶粒尺寸和纤维直径）。结果表明，较小的晶粒尺寸和较大的纤维直径可以增加YSZ /二氧化硅纳米纤维的柔韧性。此外，挠性YSZ /二氧化硅纳米纤维成功地用作微滤（MF）膜，同时对聚合物纳米颗粒表现出高纯净水渗透性和高排斥率（％）。

Published: 2019

Journal ：CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL

Impact Factor：4.126

Paper link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272884219314646