Polymer and Separations (PolySep) Research Laboratory

Last update:

08/08/2006

Ph.D. Research Research Interests

• Membrane filtration processes
• Filtration and general studies of colloidal particle systems
• Synthesis and concentration of oil emulsions and microemulsions
• Liquid and solid phase mass transfer processes

Ph.D. Research Project

Crossflow membrane filtration has become a commonly used process for the filtration and purification of various industrial and domestic wastewater streams which are contaminated with numerous colloidal particles and for the concentration of proteins and biological particles from suspensions. In the past two years, my research has focused on the filtration of colloidal silica suspensions using a crossflow ceramic zirconia ultrafiltration membrane. Of special interest to me has been the role of interparticle interactions that arise from electrostatic and van der Waals forces that are present between the particles. Currently, the focus has shifted to the systematic investigation of the filtration of oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions and microemulsions using a crossflow silica-supported polymeric membrane that is modified using a free-radical graft polymerization technique that was developed in our lab. The ultimate goals of all of my projects are to better understand and improve currently used membrane filtration systems.

UCLA Research Publications & Presentations

1. Faibish, R. S. and Cohen, Y., "Novel Polymer-Modified Ceramic Membranes for Filtration of Stable O/W Microemulsions", North American Membrane Society (NAMS), May 24-27, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
2. Faibish, R. S., Elimelech, M., and Cohen, Y., "Effect of Interparticle Electrostatic Double Layer Interactions on Permeate Flux Decline in Crossflow Membrane Filtration of Colloidal Suspensions: An Experimental Investigation" J. Colloid Interface Sci. 204, 77 (1998)
3. Hong, S., Faibish, R. S., and Elimelech, M., "Kinetics of Permeate Flux Decline in Crossflow Membrane Filtration of colloidal Suspensions" J. Colloid Interface Sci. 196, 267 (1997).
4. Cohen, Y., R. S. Faibish and M. Rovira-Bru, "Polymer-Modified Silica Resins for Aqueous Size Exclusion Chromatography," pp. 263-310, in Interfacial Phenomena in Chromatography, Pefferkorn, E. (Ed.), Marcel-Dekker, New York, (1999).
5. Faibish, R.S., Y. Cohen, "Novel Crossflow Ceramic-supported Polymeric Membranes for Ultrafiltration of Oil-in-water Microemulsions", International Conference on Membranes (ICOM), June 12-18, 1999, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
6. Cohen, Y. , T. Faibish and M. Elimelech, "Flux Decline in Cross-Flow Filtration of Colloidal Silica", North America Membrane Society, Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, March, 1997.
7. Ron Faibish and Y. Cohen, "Particle-Particle Interactions and Cake Formation in Cross-Flow Filtration of Colloidal Particles", Gordon Research Conference on Membrane: Materials and Synthesis, New Hampshire, July , 1997.
8. Faibish, R., M. Elimelech and Y. Cohen, "Role of Interparticle Colloidal Interactions on Permeate Flux Decline in Corss-Flow Membrane Filtration of Colloidal Suspensions", AIChE Annual Meeting, November 16-21, 1997, Los Angeles, California.

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