[billnotgatez]

I am doing the GOOGLE to find a Nano Filter for a project we are doing in our small home/business lab. We want to keep the filtrate and remove the solvent and dissolved salts/stuff. It is possible that we may be as small as 5 nanometers for the particles we want to save. For us this is uncharted territory. I am used to filter paper and vacuum flask (ancient guy).
We had thought of osmosis but we think that may keep some dissolved stuff with the filtrate particles. We are also contemplating exchange resin, but we think that we can remove more of what we want with a small enough filter.

I .being of Edison like thinking. would just tinker with all the possibilities, but my, Tesla like thinking, com padre wants me to search. If any of you out there knows the answer off the top of their head, please chime in. I am still digesting all that I have found so far using WIKI and GOOGLE.

I forgot to mention we are working at the test tube size not the 5 gallon pail size.

 

[billnotgatez]

I will also think about centrifuge.

[Arkcon]

HPLC grade solvents are filtered through a 0.1 micron filter.  This is typically a stainless steel plate with pores of that size, in order to stand up to the tremendous pressures required.  You want nano, and you want to use the standard membrane filters used for aqueous solutions -- nylon or other polymer usually at 0.2 u, which is likely not possible.  You're not going to find this on Google, you need to talk to a nano-tech scientist about your app.  I went to a symposium on the topic once, but I don't have lecture materials with me here.  If you can't crack this problem, PM me this weekend to remind me.

[DrCMS]

bill can you give a few more details about what you have and which bits you need

[billnotgatez]

@DrCMS
I am currently dabbling in pottery, ceramics, and glass making. We are looking to make mixtures and side groups using silica and alumina with other compounds. For instance, the sludge left behind after making a glaze is of interest and we want to reduce some of the water and dissolved compounds to make the glaze more usable. All we are doing is similar to common practice but we are trying to get rid of the water and unwanted by means other than waiting for it to evaporate. If you have done some pottery or glass making you might have better idea of what the traditional methods are like. I can discuss here or in IM with you, if you need a better handle on the process. And, I appreciate you responding.

@Arkcon
I really appreciate your insight and thank you for enlightening me. It really helped.

@anyone who is interested
We were looking at doing filtering without ever thinking of centrifuge. Sometimes, you can not see the forest for the trees. So at this point, we are going to get a used centrifuge. That way we keep costs down and just tinker. We do not need perfect at this point. Later when we move from the test tube to larger amounts we will have to get more serious about the process.

Still, given the problem, any technology etc. you might think will help us please post. I surely do not know all that is out there and sometimes GOOGLE and WIKI are not enough.

[DrCMS]

If I understand you correctly you have a thin slurry of inorganic materials in water and you want to reduce the water content taking some dissolved inorganic salts with it? The volumes you are using right now are small ~10-1000mls(?) but you might want to go bigger later >5L?

A lab centrifuge could do the job you want but might be quite expensive and would not cope with the larger volumes very easily.

Commercial bag filters are available down to 1μm.  I'd get some of those and pour the glaze in and let gravity do the rest but stopping before all the water went.  It would be a bit messy but could show if you idea works without a large up front cost. 

[billnotgatez]

@DrCMS
You got the general idea. We might go off on a different tangent, but that is what we doing (more or less).


I see a regular new desktop centrifuge for about 170 USD with very little searching. I assume I can do better, but that can be close to my budget. I was thinking of building one as a home project (just for grins), but maybe common sense will prevail.

The bag filters are promising and I am doing the GOOGLE analysis right now.

Just to keep things in perspective
As i sort of previously noted, we are doing analysis with more or less than 2.54 cm (trying to go metric) in a test tube.