Nanofiltration single pore

Figure 8.2. AFM images of single pores in (a) microfiltration, (b) ultrafiltration and (c) nanofiltration...

The work described in this chapter is especially concerned with three of the most widely used pressure driven membrane processes microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration. These are usually classified in terms of the size of materials which they separate, with ranges typically given as 10.0-0.1 xm for microfiltration, 0.1 p.m-5 nm for ultrafiltration, and 1 nm for nanofiltration. The membranes used have pore sizes in these ranges. Such pores are best visualised by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) [3]. Figure 14.1 shows an example of a single pore in each of these three types of membrane. An industrial membrane process may use several hundred square meters of membrane area containing billions of such pores. 

Figure 6.5 Single pore and pore size distribution of XP117 nanofiltration membrane.

An important challenge in science is to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before. Thus, Figure 6.5 shows an image and the corresponding pore size distribution of a single pore in a nanofiltration membrane, XP117 from PCI Membranes. 

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