Microfluidic model systems used to emulate processes occurring during soft particle filtration

Scientific Reports
I Bouhid de AguiarKarin Schroën

Abstract

Cake layer formation in membrane processes is an inevitable phenomenon. For hard particles, especially cake porosity and thickness determine the membrane flux, but when the particles forming the cake are soft, the variables one has to take into account in the prediction of cake behavior increase considerably. In this work we investigate the behavior of soft polyacrylamide microgels in microfluidic model membranes through optical microscopy for in situ observation both under regular flow and under enhanced gravity conditions. Particles larger than the pore are able to pass through deformation and deswelling. We find that membrane clogging time and cake formation is not dependent on the applied pressure but rather on particle and membrane pore properties. Furthermore, we found that particle deposits subjected to low pressures and low g forces deform in a totally reversible fashion. Particle deposits subjected to higher pressures only deform reversibly if they can re-swell due to capillary forces, otherwise irreversible compression is observed. For membrane processes this implies that when using deformable particles, the pore size is not a good indicator for membrane performance, and cake formation can have much more severe conseq...Continue Reading

References

Aug 25, 2006·Lab on a Chip·J de JongM Wessling
Oct 7, 2006·Journal of Colloid and Interface Science·T F HeadenM Aston
Jul 24, 2010·The Journal of Chemical Physics·Chia Wei Hsu, Yeng-Long Chen
Dec 7, 2010·Advances in Colloid and Interface Science·P BacchinP Aimar
Jun 23, 2016·Scientific Reports·T van de LaarJ Sprakel
Nov 2, 2016·Soft Matter·Emilie Dressaire, Alban Sauret
Sep 2, 2017·Scientific Reports·I Bouhid de AguiarK Schroën
Apr 11, 2018·Scientific Reports·R van ZwietenK Schroën

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Citations

Nov 4, 2020·Membranes·Izabella Bouhid de Aguiar, Karin Schroën
Jun 20, 2021·Scientific Reports·Arne LükenMatthias Wessling

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
membrane filtration
chip

Software Mentioned

ImageJ
matlab

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