(6im) Membrane Materials and Transport Studies for Sustainable Water, Energy and Life Sciences

Membrane Materials and Transport Studies
for Sustainable Water, Energy and Life Sciences

Ngoc Bui, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
Livermore, CA

2^nd Year Postdoctoral Fellow

Research
Interests and Future Direction:

Overcoming
the emerging global scarcity of water, energy, and other natural resources
(e.g., nutrients, metals, minerals, etc.) are grand challenges faced by
humanity today. These critical resources are inextricably linked, and
therefore, must be considered together as new technologies are developed. Membrane-based
processes promise to provide more efficient and economical separation solutions
which are then applicable at large scale for sustainable water and energy production.
Recent advances in controlled fabrication and characterization of materials at
nanoscale allow for creative designs of functional membranes with effective
nanostructure and chemistry. Furthermore, they provide effective tools to
unravel transport mechanisms of various molecules across different membrane
nanostructures which are crucially important for the development of
next-generation membranes with enhanced permselective performance at lower
energetic and environmental costs.

In a big picture, my research interests lie in tackling the
energy - water nexus by seeking a robust and cost-effective solution to produce
water sustainably using renewable energy. Forward osmosis (FO) is a unique and
emerging platform technology that may ultimately help address water, resource,
and energy scarcity by enabling the harvesting of salinity gradients for
electricity generation (pressure retarded osmosis), concentrating high-value
dissolved solids for recovery and beneficial reuse (direct osmotic
concentration), and converting saline waters to fresh water (FO). Such a
versatile technology platform has inspired an increasing number of imaginative
uses for both broad and niche applications. Challenges remain, however, as
widespread adoption of this platform technology is hindered by the lack of an
appropriately designed membrane. Therefore, I would like to spend efforts on innovating
new membrane structures by interdisciplinarily bridging nanotechnology and
membrane science for the next generation of membrane with high permselectivity,
mechanical integrity, anti-fouling and scalability. Also, I am interested in
leveraging the advanced characterization tools to study the correlations
between membrane nanostructure and chemistry with the transport properties of
chemical species across membranes which, in turn, offer opportunities for
better predictive models and system designs with precise control to be
proposed. I would like to unite the gathered knowledge from my master degree (synthesizing
activated/porous carbon nanofibers as efficient electrodes for energy storage
devices), my Ph.D. (synthesizing
thin-film composite membranes supported on nanofiber-related materials for
sustainable water and energy production via forward osmosis; and developing
osmotic transport model across the semipermeable membrane) and my postdoc (developing robust
vertically-aligned carbon nanotube membranes for breathable and protective
fabrics; and unraveling the transport mechanisms through nanoconfinement) as a toolkit in further exploring my direction. Furthermore,
I am also interested in learning and exploring more niche applications (in drug
delivery, protective fabrics, wound dressings, biomolecule separation devices, adsorption,
bio-inspired materials and so on) for functionalized nanomaterials (nanofibers,
nanotubes) and their composites. Based on the proposals that I have assembled,
I foresee myself collaborating with other experimentalists, the simulation
teams and industry.

Proposals:  LDRD-Labwide

Postdoctoral Project:  ?Breathable and Protective Fabrics based on
Vertically-aligned Carbon Nanotube Membrane?. Under supervision of Dr.
Kuang Jen Wu and Dr. Francesco Fornasiero, Physical and Life Sciences, Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA.

PhD Dissertation:  ?Nanofiber-supported
Thin-film Composite Membrane Synthesis and Transport Study for Forward Osmosis?. Under
supervision of Professor Jeffrey R. McCutcheon, Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

Research Experience:

·        
Pioneered in the development of a new
and effective generation of nanofiber-supported thin-film composite membrane
platform for sustainable water and energy production by harnessing
salinity-gradient energy via engineered osmosis (forward osmosis and
pressure-retarded osmosis).

-         
Synthesized submicron-thick polyamide
film onto highly porous nanofibrous web.

-         
Studied the correlation between
membrane structures and properties (e.g. functionalized nanofiber structure,
interconnected porous structure, pore size distribution) with their
performances (e.g. water permeability, osmotic water flux, water/salt
selectivity, power density harnessed from salinity-gradient energy).

-         
Characterization/testing techniques:
FE-SEM, TEM, thermal analyses, tensile strength, contact angle, FT-IR, BET
specific surface area, reverse osmosis, microfiltration, forward osmosis,
pressure-retarded osmosis.

·        
Expertise in electrospun nanofiber

-         
Developed various nanofibrous support
platforms for thin-film composite membrane from different polymers, solvents
and nanocomposite.

-         
Controlled nanofibers structures and
properties (e.g. mechanical properties, fiber surface porosity/roughness via
electrospinning process control).

·        
Integrated expertise in (activated)
carbon nanofiber synthesis with their potential in water treatment and
sustainable energy production.

-         
Introduced concept and skillset learnt
from South Korea to the new laboratory at UCONN, indirectly leading to several
funding awards from National Science Foundation and others in which carbon
nanofiber is the core material.

-         
Developed synthesis procedure and
preliminary results as well as trained lab-members on fabricating activated
carbon nanofiber (received student proposal award for Multidisciplinary
Environmental Research Proposal by UCONN Center for Environmental Sciences
and Engineering (CESE), PI: Dr. Jeffrey McCutcheon, Co-PI: Dr. Baikun Li).

·        
Developed a new mathematical osmotic transport
model.

·        
Systems design

-         
Designed and custom-built
electrospinning systems and trained lab-members on nanofibers fabrication.

-         
Custom-built cross-flow forward osmosis
system (working with another lab member).

Master
Dissertation:  ?Activated Carbon Nanofibers as Electrodes for
Supercapacitors?

Chonnam National University, Gwangju, S.
Korea.

Research
Experience:

·        
Developed
high specific surface area activated carbon nanofibrous electrode for
supercapacitor (aim is to increase energy density and specific capacitance of
supercapacitors by controlling the porous structure and specific surface area
of carbon nanofiber electrode derived from decorated polymeric nanofibers).

·  
 Studied
electrochemical performance of porous carbon fiber-based electrodes.

·  
 Characterization/Testing
techniques: FE-SEM, TEM, BET specific surface area, Nitrogen adsorption,
thermal analyses, impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammogram, charge -
discharge behaviors.

Teaching Experience:

Guest Lecturer ? University of
Connecticut Storrs, CT

CHEG 5395 ? Investigation of Special Topics
? Membrane Separations Winter 2011, Winter 2012, Fall 2013

Teaching Assistant ? University of
Connecticut Storrs, CT ENGR 1166, Foundations of Engineering Spring 2009

Teaching Assistant ? University of
Connecticut Storrs, CT CHEG 4147, Introduction to Process Dynamics and
Control Fall 2008

Teaching Assistant ? University of
Connecticut Storrs, CT CHEG 3123, Transfer Operations I Fall 2008

Selected
Publications:

PATENTS

1.
McCutcheon, J.R., Bui, N.N, Hoek, E.M.V., Lind, M.L, Nano-Structured
Membranes for Engineered Osmosis Applications, WO 2011/060202 A1, Application
Number PCT/US2010/056426.

2.
Kim C., Balathanigaimani M.S., Bui, N.N., Moon H., Yang K.S., Lee J.W.,
Activated carbon with ultra-high specific surface area from corn and Production
method thereof, KO 10-2008-0085605, application number 10-2007-0027360.

BOOK
CHAPTER(S)

McCutcheon, J.R., Bui, N.N: Forward Osmosis,
in ?Desalination: Water from Water?, Ed. Jane Kucera.

JOURNAL
PUBLICATIONS (H-Index: 10, Total citations: 548)

1.      
Bui
N.N.,
McCutcheon J.R., Nanoparticle-Embedded Nanofibers in High Permselectivity
Thin-film Composite Membranes for Forward Osmosis, ACS Applied Materials
& Interfaces, under revision.

2.      
Bui
N.N.,
Arena J., McCutcheon J.R., Proper Accounting of Mass Transfer Resistances in
Forward and Pressure Retarded Osmosis: Improving the Accuracy of Model
Predictions of Structural Parameter, Journal of Membrane Science,
in press.

3.      
Bui
N.N.,
McCutcheon J.R., Impacts of Nanofiber Size on Osmotic Flux Performance of
Thin-film Composite Membrane for Engineered Osmosis (in preparation).

4.      
Bui
N.N., McCutcheon
J.R., Nanofiber Supported Thin-film Composite Membrane for Pressure Retarded
Osmosis, Environmental Science & Technology, 48, 2014, 4129-36.

5.      
Bui
N.N., McCutcheon
J.R., Hydrophilic Nanofibers as New Supports for Thin Film Composite Membranes
for Engineered Osmosis, Environmental Science & Technology,
47, 2013, 1761-9.

6.      
Bui
N.N., Lind
M.L., Hoek E.M.V., McCutcheon J.R., Electrospun Nanofiber Supported Thin Film
Composite Membranes for Engineered Osmosis, Journal of Membrane Science,
385-386, 2011, 10-19.

7.      
Huang
L., Bui N.N., Meyering M.T., Hamlin T.J., McCutcheon J.R., Novel Hydrophilic
Nylon 6,6 Microfiltration Membrane Supported Thin Film Composite Membranes for
Engineered Osmosis, Journal of Membrane Science, 437, 2013,
141-9.

8.      
Huang
L., Bui N.N., Manickam S.S., McCutcheon J.R., Controlling Electrospun
Nanofiber Morphology and Mechanical Properties using Humidity, Journal of
Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, 49, 2011, 1734-44.

9.      
Manickam
S.S., Karra U., Huang L., Bui N.N., Li B., McCutcheon J.R., Activated
Carbon Nanofiber Anodes for Microbial Fuel Cells, Carbon, 53,
2013, 19-28.

10.  
Bui
N.N.,
Kim B.H., Yang K.S., Dela Cruz M.E., Ferraris J.P., Activated Carbon Fibers
from Electrospinning of Polyacrylonitrile/Pitch Blends, Carbon,
47, 2009, 2538-9.

11.  
Kim
B.H., Bui N.N., Yang K.S., Dela Cruz M.E., Ferraris J.P.,
Electrochemical Properties of Activated Polyacrylonitrile/Pitch Carbon Fibers
Produced Using Electrospinning, Bull. Korean Chem. Soc., 30,
2009, 1967-72.

12.  
Kim
C., Bui N.N., Yang K.S., Kojima M., Kim Y.A., Kim Y.J., Endo M., Yang
S.C., Self-Sustained Thin Webs Consisting of Porous Carbon Nanofibers for
Supercapacitors via the Electrospinning of Polyacrylonitrile Solutions
Containing Zinc Chloride, Advanced Materials, 19, 2007, 2341-6.

13.  
Kim
C., Jeong Y.I., Bui N.N., Yang K.S., Kojima M., Kim Y.A., Endo M., Lee
J.W., Synthesis and Characterization of Porous Carbon Nanofibers with Hollow
Cores through the Thermal Treatment of Electrospun Copolymeric Nanofiber Webs,
Small, 3, 2007, 91-95.

14.  
Kim
C., Cho Y.J., Yun W.Y., Bui N.N. , Yang K.S. , Chang D.R., Lee J.W.,
Kojima M., Kim Y.A., Endo M., Fabrications and structural characterization of
ultra-fine carbon fibres by electrospinning of polymer blends, Solid
State Communications, 142, 2007, 20-23.

15.   Cho Y.J., Kim C., Bui
N.N., Yun W.Y., Yang K.S., Fabrication of Electrospun Carbon Nanocomposite
Fibers from PAN and PAA Blended Solutions, Carbon Science, 8,
2007, 49-51.