Hui-Hsin Tseng

National Chung Hsing University | NCHU · Department of Environmental Engineering

A novel glue attachment approach was proposed to form a durable hydration layer on a hydrophobic PVDF hollow fiber membrane (PVDF HFM) surface to improve its hydrophilicity and antifouling ability during wastewater filtration. The functional glue was synthesized from reclaimed styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and a hydroxyl group was created with an...

In recent years, porous materials have been extensively studied by the scientific community owing to their excellent properties and potential use in many different areas, such as gas separation and adsorption. Hyper-crosslinked porous polymers (HCLPs) have gained attention because of their high surface area and porosity, low density, high chemical...

The aim of this study is to determine the optimal carbonization conditions for carbon hollow fiber membranes for hydrogen purification. To this end, it is a prerequisite to obtain the best permselectivity of the resultant membrane. Three different carbonization atmospheres (vacuum, helium flow, and argon flow) were examined, while their effects on...

The transport of gases in polymeric membranes can be described by a solution–diffusion mechanism in which the individual transport parameters are determined from independent measurements of the gas permeability and diffusivity and further measurements of the gas solubility in the polymer of interest. Herein, we propose a new method for determining...

Compared to supported ionic liquid membranes, poly(ionic liquid) membranes are synthesized by the polymerization of ionic liquid monomers to develop polymeric backbone to improve its membrane stability for gas separation process. However, the resulting dense membrane structure induced the lower gas permeance of the poly(ionic liquid) membranes. To...

Gas and vapour separation by membrane technology has become a promising method because of its high energy efficiency and low capital investment. Here, we demonstrate a proof of concept of the design of a new type of liquid membrane called the “dynamic liquid bubble membrane” (DLBM) connected by plateau borders. The DLBM is composed of a network of...

In this study, the usage of dual hybrid organosilica is proposed for discussing the influence of thermal-driven chain stitching on the organosilica membrane structure for the first time. The influence of the gas thermal diffusivity on the hybrid organosilica membrane for separating H2 from CH4, C2H6, and C3H8, is discussed in detail. The characteri...

Ionic liquids (ILs) with high CO2 affinity are highly sought after materials for developing high performance membranes for CO2 separation. For the first time, a styrene-based IL (S-IL) monomer was synthesized and coated on the external surface of a styrene butadiene copolymer-derived hollow fiber substrate by UV polymerization to form cross-linked,...

Wastewater from production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) often contains proteins, azo dyes or antibiotics, which cause severe water eutrophication and growth of drug-resistant bacteria. A series of polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes was prepared to determine the relationships between pore structures and the abilities of different memb...

This study successfully combined photocatalyst and polymer film with the facile method for enhancing recycling convenience, reducing second pollution, and applying sustainable hydrogen production by green technology. The different polymer photocatalyst films of polyvinyl alcohol/polystyrene platinum/nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide/strontium titanat...

Membrane-based separation is a subject of great interest, owing to features such as environmental friendliness, energy conservation, and ease of operation. Among various membranes, carbon membranes came to prominence as a result of their bimodal pore size distribution and good thermal and chemical stability. These appealing properties enable carbon...

Dual organosilica membranes were synthesized to investigate the effects of differing molar ratios of bis (triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTESE)/glycidyl Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (glycidyl POSS) on the membrane performance. The reaction mechanism behind CO2 capture using the organosilica membranes under ambient conditions was also investigated....

This work reported on the fabrication and investigation of a mixed matrix hollow fiber membrane (MMHFM) by incorporating commercially available alumina particles into a polyetherimide (PEI) polymer matrix. These MMHFMs were prepared by the dry-wet spinning technique. Accordingly, optimizing the spinning parameters, including the air gap distance an...

Antibiotics are commonly used as inhibitors to terminate protein formation in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries; however, due to the large difference in molecular weight between antibiotics and proteins, it is hard to remove them simultaneously through ultrafiltration or nanofiltration. In this work, a novel membrane with nanoscale po...

This work is a continuation of our previous study investigating the role of the intermediate layer in carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane formation and its gas separation performance. Herein, we focused on the effect of the conditions under which the intermediate TiO2 layer and selective carbon layer were prepared from the polyetherimide (PEI) pr...

The fouling caused by protein ultrafiltration is a bottleneck during wastewater treatment in the biotechnology industry. In this study, the antifouling and mechanism of superior protein rejection by a branch-like structure of zwitterions grafted onto a PVDF membrane via a novel amphiphilic linker is reported. The SMA-HEA amphiphilic linker, 2-hydro...

Membrane-based separation systems have been widely explored for hydrogen production and purification in the development of next-generation fuels. In this work, we propose a thin film composite hollow fiber membrane (TFCHFM) for H2 purification, incorporating poly(styrene-co-butadiene) copolymers (SBC, 4% butadiene, for flexibility and ease of proce...

In this study, waste polystyrene (wPS) plastic was used to prepare gas-separation membranes with hot-pressing technology to reduce the accumulation of plastic waste. Polystyrene is a commonly used polymer for the production of plastic products, and it is also used in the synthesis of membranes for gas separation. Compared to the traditional synthes...

In this study, three polymer precursor conformations, dilute, semi-dilute, and concentrated, were used to fabricate carbon molecular sieving (CMS) membranes via a fixed carbonization protocol. The effects of the precursor conformation on the microstructure of the resultant CMS membranes were characterized by Raman analysis. Their ability to separat...

Developing ultrafiltration (UF) membranes for protein purification requires a critical understanding of the pore engineering and active-layer morphological control. In this study, we systematically explored the use of poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) with molecular weights (M W , 600-6000 g⋅mol − 1) and concentration (3-7.5 wt%) as a pore modifier to pre...

In this work, bis (triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTESE)-derived organosilica membranes were fabricated via the sol-gel method. To obtain organosilica membranes with high perm-selectivity, the network of the membrane was tailored by using different solvents in the preparation of the BTESE-derived sol with different pore sizes and network structures. A sol...

The effects of green processes in hybrid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes on CO2 separation have received little attention to date. The effective CO2 separation of the membranes is believed to be controlled by the reaction and curing process. In this study, hybrid PDMS membranes were fabricated on ceramic substrates using the water-in-emulsion...

In this paper, we review various novel/modified interfacial polymerization (IP) techniques for the fabrication of polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC)/thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes in both pressure-driven and osmotically driven separation processes. Although conventional IP technique is the dominant technology for the fabrication of c...

Improper disposal and storage of waste tires poses a serious threat to the environment and human health. In light of the drawbacks of the current disposal methods for waste tires, the transformation of waste material into valuable membranes has received significant attention from industries and the academic field. This study proposes an efficient a...

In this study, hydrophobic waste poly(styrene-co-butadiene)-derived polymeric hollow fiber fabricated via a dry-jet wet spinning method were used as substrates to support ionic liquid (IL) membranes via the dip-coating method. The surface properties of the substrates, such as pore size and its distribution, roughness, and wettability, were adjusted...

Pure BiFeO3 (BFO) was synthesized by the sol–gel auto combustion technique, then X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Diffusion reflecting spectroscopy (DRS) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods used for its characterization. The XRD analysis revealed that BFO nanoparticles were relatively pure and the...

This study presents two 3-D atmospheric plasma spray models, namely, internal and external powder injections, by using the computational fluid dynamics technique to study the status of the melting of a particle and its in-flight velocity during a porous ceramic layer fabrication process. A bulk fluid model, which solves the time-dependent standard...

The polymer precursor plays a vital role in the membrane structure, as well as its permeance and rejection capability. In general, the polymer utilized in research is purified many times to obtain a higher purity, thus resulting in expensive and energy-consuming raw materials for membranes. Herein, we propose a facile method to prepare a nanofiltra...

Tubular carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes have been recognized as a potential module for commercial application due to its high mechanical strength and large surface area. However, the carbon layer uniformity was restricted by substrate texture and dope fluidity when the dip‐coating method was used. This study evaluated the influence of variou...

Compared with plant-derived cellulose, developing biocellulose nanofibers (bio-CNFs) as a functional membrane material is of great interest in membrane filtration for the effective separation of emulsified oily wastewater due to its low cost, renewability, high water-holding capacity and anti-oil-fouling properties. In this work, a bio-CNF membrane...

Atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) of silicon carbide (SiC) is a challenging task due to the severe decomposition behaviour of the SiC. Previous studies, which utilized APS technique, mixed SiC powder with metals and/or metal oxides to prepare SiC coating. None of them sprayed silica gel-coated SiC and examined the characteristics of the coatings. I...

The amphiphilic copolymer polystyrene-maleic anhydride (SMA)-2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) was synthesized for the first time in this study, and used as a linker to graft zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) in order to enhance the hydrophilicity and anti-adsorption ability of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes. This amphiphile lin...

We synthesized cobalt tetroxide (Co3O4) silica nanocomposites based on the conventional tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) monomer and ethoxy polysiloxane (ES40) oligomer by sol-gel chemistry coupled with rapid thermal process (RTP). The physicochemical properties and structural formation of cobalt oxide silica nanocomposites were comprehensive charac...

Recovery of heavier hydrocarbons, C2~C4 olefins and paraffins, from gas streams is of great importance economically. In this study, asymmetric carbon hollow fiber membranes (CHFMs) were prepared by a one-step vacuum-assisted dip coating and pyrolysis, and investigated for H2/CO2, H2/C2H6, and H2/C3H8 separations. To increase the mechanical strength...

Tubular alumina substrates have been widely used as supporting membranes in gas separation. Owing to the demand for supporting membranes with a dense or ultra-micropore texture, the quality/quantity control of substrates is required to prevent the formation of defects due to rough surfaces, high curvature, and high difference in thermal expansion b...

Waste tires are mainly composed of natural rubber, synthetic rubber, carbon black, steel wires, and fibers. Rubber, which is a valuable resource, is one of the raw materials used for membrane preparation. In this study, a convenient and environmentally friendly synthetic technology, hot-pressing method was developed for reusing reclaimed tire rubbe...

A series of ultrafiltration (UF) membranes based on mixed matrix of chromium-doped strontium titanate (SrTiO3–Cr) photocatalyst and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) were systematically prepared by non-solvent induced phase inversion technique. Porous PVDF membrane and mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) incorporated with 3–10 wt% SrTiO3–Cr were produced...

The claim that quality of membrane fabrication is based on surface smoothness of substrate has been known since the 1960s. In this study, we propose a concept based on the interfacial interaction between the carbon molecular sieving (CMS) selective layer and the Al 2 O 3 substrate to understand the development of the CMS membrane's micro-structure...

Thermal-annealed ZIF-8 nanoparticles were added into poly(styrene-co-butadiene) (SBC) to improve the permselectivity of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). After thermal annealing process, polar atoms were produced by the broken Zn–N bond in the ZIF-8 framework. These polar atoms were beneficial in promoting the affinity toward CO2 and improved the perm...

A novel design to synthesize a defect-free mixed-matrix membrane (MMM) exhibiting superior gas separation performance via fully dispersed blunt zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) in polymer matrix has been proposed for the first time. The sphericity and interconnected six-membered-ring (6-MR) pore porosity of ZIF-8 was controlled through an aqu...

Butyl reclaimed rubber (BRR) was used as a novel precursor in the fabrication of a rubber membrane for CO2 separation. Fully de-vulcanized BRR without impurities was produced from waste tire by regeneration. The properties of BRR were evaluated via systematic investigation of a number of experimental variables, and the effects of these variables on...

Oil purification is an important issue, with its growing commercial demand. In this work, a superoleophilic and superhydrophobic carbon membrane was prepared, and its potential for trace water-in-oil (w/o) separation was evaluated. The carbon membrane was prepared by a spin coating method, with optimization of variables such as spin speed and coati...

Pt/TiO2 photocatalysts with controllable phase were successfully prepared by controlling the hydrolysis pH values during the sol-gel process followed by Pt photodeposition. The effect of different phases of TiO2 coated with Pt on the catalytic properties and the photocatalytic activities were also investigated. The characterization results of the s...

Perovskite type BiFeO3 (BFO) was synthesized by sol-gel auto-combustion method. Synthesized BFO was immobilized on the micro slides glass plates by sol-gel dip-coating method. The sample was characterized by XRD, FESEM, UV-Vis DRS, and BET techniques. The XRD pattern confirmed the perovskite structure, and from the Debye-Scherrer equation the avera...

Recently we published a short communication about the gas separation by new type of membranes so called “dynamic liquid membranes” (DLM). The gas transport through water film was described by solution diffusion model commonly used for evaluation of the gas permeation through nonporous polymeric membranes; therefore this type of membranes is suitabl...

The composite mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were prepared by incorporating mesopore SBA-15 as a filler to discuss the effects of its particle shape, particle size, and loadings on the organic–inorganic interfacial morphology. The SBA-15 was synthesized by template method and it's particle shape and size was adjusted by adding electrolyte. The resul...

Three styrene-butadiene copolymer (SBC)-derived membranes were prepared using different polystyrene/polybutadiene (PS/PB) ratios, including a graft copolymer with 4 wt% PB (PS-4BR) and block copolymers with 55 and 70 wt% PB (PS-55BR and PS-70BR). The SBC-derived membranes were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), atomic for...

The selective catalytic reduction of NO with ammonia (NH3-SCR) was studied over Cu-ZSM-5 nanocatalysts which were prepared by several methods, including conventional ion-exchange (IE), conventional impregnation (IM), ultrasound-enhanced impregnation (UIM), conventional deposition precipitation (DP) using NaOH and homogeneous deposition precipitatio...

An alternate reuse route for recycling plastic solid waste (PSW) was successfully developed in this study. Polystyrene (PS) waste was directly re-used as a material for gas-separation membranes using a solution-casting method. The waste materials comprise three types: (1) Oriented polystyrene (OPS), (2) expandable polystyrene (EPS), and (3) high-im...

A new CMS membrane with smaller gas pair H2/CO2 and H2/CH4 separation factor of approximately 8.3 and 726, with an H2 permeability of 600.7 Barrer, was synthesized by coating it on titanium gel-modified alumina supports. After calcination, the titanium gel provided an interconnected nano-network intermediate layer for casting dope to penetrate the...

The transport properties of gases in PPO (poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide))-silica mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were improved using a thermal annealing method. The density and crystallinity properties of the MMMs were characterized using TGA, XRD, FESEM, and FTIR to clarify the predominant mechanism of thermal annealing. The results indicate...

Although carbon surfaces are generally hydrophobic, the surface oxygen-containing groups act as water molecule sorption sites, reducing the performance of carbon molecular sieving (CMS) membranes over time. In this study, a hydrophobic poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) layer was coated on the surface of PPO- or polyetherimide (PEI)-deriv...

The rates of photocatalytic production of H2 by Pt/N-doped TiO2 are significantly affected by the hydrolysis temperature applied during the sol–gel process. Production rates increase as the hydrolysis temperature decreases from 40 to 20 °C. The effects of the hydrolysis temperature on the properties and water-splitting behavior of photocatalysts we...

This paper presents an artificial neural network (ANN) for modeling the relationship between catalyst composition and catalytic performance in the NH3-SCR of NO process. The supported catalysts with different transition metals (Mn, Fe, Co and Cu) and (γ-Al2O3, ZSM5 and SAPO-34) supports were prepared and tested in NH3–NO-SCR reaction to generate re...

A series of mesoporous Zr-SBA-15-supported Na catalysts was prepared and applied to the heterogeneous catalysis of canola oil transesterification. The effects of Si/Zr ratio, reaction time, and percentage of Na loading on the conversion to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were studied. The dependence of the textural structure and chemical properties...

Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)(PPO)-silica mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were synthesized through the in-situ sol–gel method. The effects of the acid–base catalysis conditions and silica loading weight on the gas separation performance of the membranes were investigated. The functional groups, crystalline structure, thermal stability, and m...

Asymmetrical thin carbon molecular sieving (CMS) membranes exhibiting good mechanical strength and high separation performance were prepared by changing the physical properties of α-Al2O3 substrates. The physical properties of the substrates, such as pore size, pore volume and surface roughness, significantly influence the penetrability of polymer...

To strengthen interfacial adhesion between selective carbon molecular sieve (CMS) layers and alpha-Al2O3 substrates, mordenite framework inverted (MFI)-type intermediate layers were synthesized to reduce pore sizes and improve chemical characteristics of underlying substrates and consequently facilitate formation of CMS layers. MFI-type zeolite int...

In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN) is firstly applied to perovskite catalyst design. A series of perovskite-type oxides with LaxSr1-xFeyCo1-yO3 general formula were prepared by sol-gel auto combustion method under different preparation condition. A three-layer perceptron neural network was used for modeling and optimization of cataly...

A novel composite membrane consisting of a poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) selective layer and a CMS/Al2O3 substrate was fabricated by a spin-coating method. This new class of PPO/CMS/Al2O3 multilayer composite membranes showed an H2 permeability of 134 Barrer, two times greater than that for the corresponding self-supported PPO polymeric membrane. Hig...

The nano-sized TiO2 powder and immobilized TiO2/SBA-15 photocatalysts were synthesized via a polyol method with an attempt to increase the quantitative effect by reducing the particle size and avoid the aggregation by immobilizing on hydrophilic SBA-15 support. The effect of reduction temperature on the TiO2 crystalline size was investigated. The X...

Polyetherimide (PEI) was used as polymeric precursor to prepare selective carbon molecular sieve (CMS) layer supported by a porous Al2O3 ceramic disk. The effects of the porous structure and surface roughness of the ceramic support on the interfacial adhesion and texture of the PEI/Al2O3-derived composite CMS membrane were investigated by modulatin...

An SBA-15/carbon molecular sieve (CMS) composite membrane, using polyetherimide as a precursor and mesoporous silica as filler, was fabricated for hydrogen separation. The effect of mesoporous SBA-15 on the gas transport properties of the composite membrane was evaluated. The permeability and selectivity coefficients of H2, CO2, O2, N2, and CH4 wer...

In this study, a blending technique was employed to prepare an antifouling ultrafiltration membrane for humic acid (HA) separation. Using a nonsolvent induced phase separation method, negatively charged/hydrophobic polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) was blended with positively charged/hydrophilic polyetherimide (PEI) to form PPSU/PEI blend membranes. Dependi...

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes derived from polyimide (PI) and polyetherimide (PEI), which have similar functional groups were fabricated for gas separation. To evaluate the effect of the functional groups of PI and PEI on the properties of their CMS membranes, the composition of the casting solution and carbonization temperatures were inve...

Taiwan is currently confronted by problems on dense population and limited space. In this regard, incineration as a widely used waste treatment technology functions as an alternative to landfill treatment. This study emphasizes the comparison of emission characteristics of pollutants such as NOx, SOx, particulates, and global warming gas (CO2) betw...

The coupling adsorption and degradation of trichloroethylene (TCE) through dechlorination using synthetic granular activated carbon and zerovalent iron (GAC-ZVI) composites was studied. The GAC-ZVI composites were prepared from aqueous Fe(2+) solutions by impregnation with and without the use of a PEG dispersant and then heated at 105°C or 700°C un...

The authors previously synthesized a SBA-15/PPO multilayer mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) and demonstrated that the SBA-15 filler itself may create additional passageway for gas pass through. The objectives of this work were to investigate the effect of texture of SBA-15, including pore sizes, pore volume, and external surface area, on the structure...

An asymmetric cellulose acetate propionate/polyvinylidine fluoride (CAP/PVDF) blend membrane was fabricated using the phase inversion method–induced by immersion precipitation–and the effect of blending these two semi-crystalline polymers was studied. Morphological and thermal studies were conducted using field-emission scanning electron microscopy...

In this study, cellulose acetate propionate (CAP) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were selected to prepare porous-blend membrane by wet phase inversion method. The effect of the CAP and PVDF concentration of the casting solution on membrane morphology structure and thermal stability was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ther...

Transesterification of canola oil with methanol was investigated under a heterogeneous catalysts system. Various γ-Al2O3-, hydrotalcite-, SiO2-supported Na, Ca oxides prepared via an impregnation method were applied as solid catalyst. The influence of supports (γ-Al2O3, hydrotalcite, SiO2) structure on the activity and adsorption behavior of Na, Ca...

Multilayer composite membranes were composed using large-pore mesoporous silica molecular sieve SBA-15, PPO polymer, and CMS/Al2O3 substrate. The SBA-15 was used at different aging temperatures to transform into different crystal sizes. Membranes were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) to observe the morphology and...

To improve the mechanical strength of cellulose acetate (CA) membranes, porous inorganic/organic hybrid membranes were prepared via phase inversion technique from casting solution composed of cellulose acetate propionate (CAP), poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), mesoporous SBA-15 materials, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The effects of PVDF conte...

Polyetherimide (PEI) ultrafiltration membranes were surface modified using crystalline PPSU polymer additive through thermal-induced phase inversion method. The pure and blend membranes were characterized in terms of differential scanning calorimetry, morphology and pure water flux. The effects of polymer concentration and blending ratio on membran...

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitrogen oxide (NO) technology has widely applied in a combustion process to decline the concentration of NO due to its impact on the environments concerns. In this study, mesoporous SBA-15 was used as support material to load Cu catalyst to undergo the DeNOx reaction by CO. Cu/SBA-15 catalyst were prepared by...

A novel multilayer mixed matrix membrane (MMM), consisting of poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO), large-pore mesoporous silica molecular sieve zeolite SBA-15, and a carbon molecular sieve (CMS)/Al2O3 substrate, was successfully fabricated using the procedure outlined in this paper. The membranes were cast by spin coating and exposed to different gases for...