Performance assessment of MCM-48 ceramic composite membrane by separation of AlCl 3 from aqueous solution Ashim Kumar Basumatary, Aloke Kumar Ghoshal, G. Pugazhenthi n Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, Assam, India article info Article history: Received 10 December 2014 Received in revised form 30 September 2015 Accepted 11 October 2015 Keywords: MCM-48 Composite membrane Porosity Pore size AlCl 3 abstract Three dimensional ordered mesoporous MCM-48 membrane was fabricated on a circular shaped ceramic support by in-situ hydrothermal method. The synthesized MCM-48 powder and MCM-48 ceramic composite membrane were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The porosity and pore size of the composite membrane are reduced considerably by the deposition of MCM-48 on the support. The formation of MCM-48 is verified by the XRD analysis. Three stepwise mechanisms for surfactant removal are observed by TGA analysis. FESEM images clearly signify the deposition of MCM-48 on the ceramic support. The pure water flux of the support and MCM-48 composite membrane is found to be 3.63 Â 10 À6 and 4.18 Â 10 À8 m 3 /m 2 s kPa, respectively. The above prepared MCM-48 ceramic composite membrane is employed for the removal of AlCl 3 from aqueous solution and the highest rejection of 81% is obtained at an applied pressure of 276 kPa with salt concentration of 250 ppm. & 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Membrane based separation processes have received a mounting importance due to their impending application in an extensive range of manufacturing process. The application of ceramic membranes has numerous benefits over polymeric membranes such as better chemical and thermal stability, longer life span, pressure resistance, and catalytic properties from their intrinsic nature. Since the price of ceramic membrane is too ex- pensive; presently, one of the key challenges for the growth of inorganic membranes is the fabrication of inexpensive membranes with higher flux performance to treat great volume of liquid ef- fluents. Generally, commercial ceramic membranes possess var- ious filtering layers (TiO 2 , SiO 2 and ZrO 2 ) supported on a ceramic support. Mesoporous molecular sieves (M41S) discovered by Mobil scientists in 1992 (Kresge et al., 1992; Beck et al., 1992) have shown the potential in various fields of applications due to structurally ordered materials that lead to the progressive research growth. Materials such as MCM-41, MCM-48 and MCM-50, also possess high pore volume and specific surface area (Wu et al., 2008). Amongst these, MCM-48 has three dimensional ordered stable cubic pore structures. It is hardly blocked by the host molecules due to which, it has promising prospect of broad application. Inorganic micropollutants present in the environments are generally toxic and non biodegradable. Most of the inorganic pollutants are metal ions carrying charge. This can be separated using charge membrane with comparatively bigger pore size. Some traditional techniques have been reported for the removal of such pollutants in the literature that includes reduction or lime precipitation process (Gzara and Dhabi, 2001). However, these methods are incapable of reducing the pollution concentration to the minimum required level. Hence, membrane separation process using charge inorganic membrane is one of the alternative ways to remove inorganic pollutants from effluent. The application of such membrane has been separation of inorganic pollutants like AlCl 3 , FeCl 3 (Shukla and Kumar, 2005). Jia et al. (1993) prepared zeolite composite membrane on a ceramic disc support (diameter of 50 mm and thickness of 3–5 mm) in a Teflon autoclave reactor at 180 °C for 3–72 h. The fabricated composite membrane was ap- plied for the separation of gas such as N 2 ,O 2 , He, CH 4 , CO 2 ,C 2 H 6 , C 3 H 8 and C 4 H 10 at room temperature. Iglesia et al. (2006) reported the fabrication of MCM-48 on α-alumina tubular support by hy- drothermal method. The synthesized membrane was investigated for the separation of gas phase mixture such as cyclohexane/O 2 and the membrane displayed the selectivity of greater than 270. McCool et al. (2003) prepared mesoporous silica supported membrane on alumina disc support by dip-coating and hydro- thermal treatment method. Fabricated membranes were tested for permeation of gas such as N 2 , Ar, O 2 and He. Significant research reports cited that α-alumina supports are the most commonly utilized for the preparation of inorganic membranes. However, it is very expensive and it requires high sintering temperature Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoenv Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2015.10.010 0147-6513/& 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Fax: þ91 361 2582291. E-mail address: pugal@iitg.ernet.in (G. Pugazhenthi). Please cite this article as: Kumar Basumatary, A., et al., Performance assessment of MCM-48 ceramic composite membrane by separation of AlCl 3 from aqueous solution. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2015.10.010i Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎