Influence of compatibility between sol and intermediate layer on the performance of yttria-stabilized zirconia nanofiltration membrane

This paper reports the synergistic effect of the sol and intermediate layer on the performance of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) nanofiltration (NF) membranes. We have focused on the characterization of the microstructure, pure water permeance, and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the NF membranes derived from zirconia sols of different precursor concentrations on two types of supported ZrO₂ ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. We found that the performance of YSZ membranes strongly depends on the sol concentration and the pore size of the intermediate layer. In addition, YSZ gel membrane formation was found to follow the filtration process. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the compatibility between the sol and intermediate layer to fabricate high-performance NF membranes. A crack-free thin YSZ layer with an MWCO of 816 Da (pore size: 1.4 nm) and a water permeance of 25 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1 was fabricated using a precursor concentration of 0.03 mol/L, on ZrO₂ UF membrane with a pore size of 5.5 nm. The YSZ NF membrane exhibited a relatively high retention rate towards MgCl₂ (71%), whereas a lower retention rate was observed for NaCl (35%).