Interfacial polymerization plus: A new strategy for membrane selective layer construction

The use of forward osmosis (FO) for water purification purposes has gained extensive attention in recent years. In this review, we first discuss the advantages, challenges and various applications of FO, as well as the challenges in selecting the proper draw solution for FO, after which we focus on transport limitations in FO processes. Despite recent advances in membrane development for FO, there is still room for improvement of its selective layer and support. For many applications spiral wound membrane will not suffice. Furthermore, a defect-free selective layer is a prerequisite for FO membranes to ensure low solute passage, while a support with low internal concentration polarization is necessary for a high water flux. Due to challenges affiliated to interfacial polymerization (IP) on non-planar geometries, we discuss alternative approaches to IP to form the selective layer. We also explain that, when provided with a defect-free selective layer with good rejection, the membrane support has a dominant influence on the performance of an FO membrane, which can be estimated by the structural parameter (S). We emphasize the necessity of finding a new method to determine S, but also that predominantly the thickness of the support is the major parameter that needs to be optimized.

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Effect of the Formation of Ultrathin Selective Layers on the Structure and Performance of Thin-Film Composite Chitosan/PAN Membranes for Pervaporation Dehydration

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes10070153 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 153 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mariia Dmitrenko ◽

Andrey Zolotarev ◽

Tatiana Plisko ◽

Katsiaryna Burts ◽

Vladislav Liamin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Optimal Transport ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Contact Angles ◽

Layer By Layer ◽

Water Contact ◽

Selective Layer ◽

Film Composite ◽

Thin Film Composite ◽

And Performance

The aim of the study is to improve the performance of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes with a thin selective layer based on chitosan (CS) via different approaches by: (1) varying the concentration of the CS solution; (2) changing the porosity of substrates from polyacrylonitrile (PAN); (3) deposition of the additional ultrathin layers on the surface of the selective CS layer using interfacial polymerization and layer-by-layer assembly. The developed membranes were characterized by different methods of analyses (SEM and AFM, IR spectroscopy, measuring of water contact angles and porosity). The transport characteristics of the developed TFC membranes were studied in pervaporation separation of isopropanol/water mixtures. It was found that the application of the most porous PAN-4 substrate with combination of formation of an additional polyamide selective layer by interfacial polymerization on the surface of a dense selective CS layer with the subsequent layer-by-layer deposition of five bilayers of poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate)/CS polyelectrolyte pair led to the significant improvement of permeance and high selectivity for the entire concentration feed range. Thus, for TFC membrane on the PAN-4 substrate the optimal transport characteristics in pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol (12–90 wt.% water) were achieved: 0.22–1.30 kg/(m2h), 99.9 wt.% water in the permeate.

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Influence of support layer pore size on interfacial polymerization and polyamide selective layer characterization

Journal of Polymer Research ◽

10.1007/s10965-021-02736-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (10) ◽

Author(s):

Feng Gao ◽

Dandan Chen ◽

Tianyu Liu ◽

Jinyao Chen ◽

Jian Kang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pore Size ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Selective Layer

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Innovative Nanostructured Membranes for Reverse Osmosis Water Desalination

University of the Future: Re-Imagining Research and Higher Education ◽

10.29117/quarfe.2020.0023 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Haleema Saleem ◽

Syed Javaid Zaidi

Keyword(s):

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Separation Efficiency ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Water Flux ◽

Water Desalination ◽

Selective Layer ◽

Salt Rejection ◽

Membrane Performance ◽

Tfc Membrane ◽

Ro Membrane

Reverse osmosis (RO) is considered as the most widely utilized technique worldwide for water treatment. However, the commercial thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, which are normally made of polyamide (PA) through interfacial polymerization (IP), still experience certain major issues in performance and fabrication. The spin assisted layer-by-layer (SA-LbL) technique was established for overcoming some drawbacks with commercially available PA membranes. Also, recent investigations have recognized the nanoparticle inclusion into the selective layer as a powerful technique for improving the membrane efficiency. Hence, two different methodologies are presented here to improve the membrane performance, i.e., (1) SA-LbL technique to fabricate TFC membrane by the deposition of alternate ultrathin layers of different polyelectrolytes on polysulfone (PSF) commercial ultrafiltration membrane and (2) the nanoclay incorporation into the membranes during IP process to develop TFC membrane. Two types of nanoclays, cloisite (CS)-15A and montmorillonite (MNT), were incorporated to enhance the separation efficiency. This SA-LbL is an innovative method for the RO membrane manufacture, and has not been described earlier to the best of our knowledge. In addition, this work validated for the first time, the efficiency of the two nanoclays at the PA selective layer in the RO membrane. The membrane performance was evaluated using sodium chloride solution in a cross-flow permeation-testing cell for salt rejection and water flux. The results show significant improvement in water flux and salt rejection. The permeation test of 120 bilayers of poly (allylaminehydrochloride)/poly (vinylsulfate) on PSF substrate showed water flux of 37 L/ (m2.h) and salt rejection of 53%, for a 2000-ppm salt solution feed. The highest water flux of 40 L/m2.h with 80% salt rejection, relative to the control membrane was obtained for the membranes containing nanoclays at 25oC temperature, 40.0 bar pressure and 2000 ppm feed concentration. Thus, our study demonstrated that these TFC membranes are promising, and these novel fabrication techniques are great tool to manufacture the RO membrane.

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Influence of l-arginine on performances of polyamide thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes

RSC Advances ◽

10.1039/c9ra02922b ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (35) ◽

pp. 20149-20160 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dandan Chen ◽

Qiang Chen ◽

Tianyu Liu ◽

Jian Kang ◽

Ruizhang Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Reverse Osmosis ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Separation Performance ◽

Selective Layer ◽

Film Composite ◽

Thin Film Composite ◽

Reverse Osmosis Membranes

l-Arginine (Arg) as an aqueous additive was incorporated into the polyamide selective layer during interfacial polymerization, thereby the separation performance and anti-fouling properties of the resulting RO membranes were enhanced.

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Bioenabled Interfacial Polymerized on Nanofibrous Scaffold as Composite Nanofiltration Membrane

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.482-484.565 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 482-484 ◽

pp. 565-568 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jun Zhao ◽

Li Na Yu ◽

Xiong Li ◽

Yin Yang ◽

Xue Fen Wang

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Contact Angle ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Composite Membranes ◽

Nanofiltration Membrane ◽

Permeate Flux ◽

Selective Layer ◽

Static Contact ◽

Pes Membrane ◽

Trimesoyl Chloride

Thin-film nanofiltration composite (TFNFC) membrane consisting of polyethersulfone (PES) nanofibrous support layer modified by 3, 4-dihydroxy-phenethylamine (dopamine) and interfacial polymerization (IFP) polyamide selective barrier layer was obtained in this study. The hydrophilicity of PES nanofibrous membrane was tremendously improved as the water static contact angle changed from 81.6° to 26.83° by dopamine modification. An ultrathin selective layer was produced by IFP reaction between solutions of piperazine (PIP) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) on the dopamine modified porous PES membrane. The TFNFC membrane presented relatively high permeate flux (~59.9 L/m2h) and high salt rejection (~98.9%) to divalent anion solutions (1000mg/L, Na2SO4) at a low pressure of 0.6 MPa. It could be believed that dopamine modification would be very efficient to fabricate the composite membranes with stable structure and high filtration performance.

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