Distortion of Eelectrical Double Layer in Liquid Filtration by Fibrous Filters

Liquid filtration by membrane filters is essential for the preparation of ultrapure water in semiconductor manufacturing processes. The separation of submicrometer particles suspended in ultrapure water with a laminated fibrous membrane filter was studied numerically and experimentally in the present work. We found that an electrical double layer around a single fiber expanded to a large extent at a low ion concentration, as in ultrapure water, and deformed toward the upstream of the fiber with increasing filtration velocity. Since an increase in the electrical double-layer thickness leads to a decrease in the electrical potential gradient, particles with the same polarity as the fiber approach the fiber more easily and are captured at a high filtration velocity. Experimental results also confirmed that the collection efficiency of polystyrene latex(PSL) particles through a PTFE filter became higher as the filtration velocity increased.