Membrane technology has been disseminated throughout the world, in several sectors where there is a need for separation of substances, in different scales of dimensions and conditions of temperature and pressure. In this way, ceramic membranes has been exploited to work in environments where the polymeric membrane have restriction, such as, in the presence of organic solvents, high pressures and temperatures, etc. So, the aim of this work is to obtain asymmetric ceramic membrane based on clay deposited on porous support obtained with commercial alumina. The active layer was deposited by slip casting with times of 10, 20 and 30 s to obtain the asymmetric membrane. The ceramics masses for the preparation of support and for the membrane were characterized by particle size distribution and scanning electron microscopy. The asymmetric porous support and the membrane were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry and water flow analyzes. The results showed a support with a mean diameter of 0.99 µm and porosity of 39.25%. The asymmetric membrane was successfully obtained, free of defects for bonding 10 s, reaching a thickness of 104 µm, average pore diameter of 0.25 µm and porosity of 35%, thereby being considered for applications in the microfiltration process, with a stabilized distilled water flux permeate close to 100 L/h.m2.
ceramic membrane; deposition; support; microfiltration
