Aluminosilicate Nanotubes Embedded Polyamide Thin Film Nanocomposite Forward Osmosis Membranes with Simultaneous Enhancement of Water Permeability and Selectivity

Nanocomposite membranes are strongly desired to break a trade-off between permeability and selectivity. This work reports new thin film nanocomposite (TFN) forward osmosis (FO) membranes by embedding aluminosilicate nanotubes (ANTs) into a polyamide (PA) rejection layer. The surface morphology and structure of the TFN FO membranes were carefully characterized by FTIR, XPS, FESEM and AFM. The ANTs incorporated PA rejection layers exhibited many open and broad “leaf-like” folds with “ridge-and-valley” structures, high surface roughness and relatively low cross-linking degree. Compared with thin film composite (TFC) membrane without ANTs, the TFN membrane with only 0.2 w/v% ANTs loading presented significantly improved FO water permeability, selectivity and reduced structural parameters. This promising performance can be mainly contributed to the special ANTs embedded PA rejection layer, where water molecules preferentially transport through the nanochannels of ANTs. Molecular dynamic simulation further proved that water molecules have much larger flux through the nanotubes of ANTs than sodium and chloride ions, which are attributed to the intrinsic hydrophilicity of ANTs and low external force for water transport. This work shows that these TFN FO membranes with ANTs decorated PA layer are promising in desalination applications due to their simultaneously enhanced permeability and selectivity.

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IMPACTS OF HYDROPHILIC NANOFILLERS ON SEPARATION PERFORMANCE OF THIN FILM NANOCOMPOSITE REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANE

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v78.10068 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 78 (12) ◽

Author(s):

C. Y. Chong ◽

G. S. Lai ◽

W. J. Lau ◽

N. Yusof ◽

P. S. Goh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Water Permeability ◽

Interfacial Polymerization ◽

Pure Water ◽

Water Flux ◽

Water Desalination ◽

Separation Performance ◽

Salt Rejection ◽

Tfc Membrane ◽

Thin Film Nanocomposite

The membrane technology is still considered a costly method to produce potable water. In view of this, RO membrane with enhanced water permeability without trade-off in salt rejection is desirable as it could further reduce the cost for water desalination. In this study, thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes containing 0.05 or 0.10 w/v% hydrophilic nanofillers in polyamide layer were synthesized via interfacial polymerization of piperazine and trimesoyl chloride monomers. The resultant TFN membranes were characterized and compared with a control thin film composite (TFC) membrane. Results from the filtration experiments showed that TFN membranes exhibited higher water permeability, salt rejection and fouling resistance compared to that of the TFC membrane. Excessive amount of nanofillers incorporated in the membrane PA layer however negatively affected the cross-linking in the polymer matrix, thus deteriorating the membrane salt rejection. TFN membrane containing 0.05 w/v% of nanofillers showed better performances than the TFC membrane, recording a pure water flux of 11.2 L/m2∙h, and salt rejection of 95.4%, 97.3% and 97.5% against NaCl, Na2SO4 and MgSO4, respectively.

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Development of high water permeability and chemically stable thin film nanocomposite (TFN) forward osmosis (FO) membrane with poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS)-coated zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) for produced water treatment

Journal of Water Process Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.jwpe.2019.101031 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 101031 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

J.J. Beh ◽

B.S. Ooi ◽

J.K. Lim ◽

E.P. Ng ◽

H. Mustapa

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Water Treatment ◽

Water Permeability ◽

Produced Water ◽

Forward Osmosis ◽

High Water ◽

Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework ◽

Produced Water Treatment ◽

Thin Film Nanocomposite

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Study on Nanocomposite Membranes with Enhanced Performance for Forward Osmosis

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.900.191 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 900 ◽

pp. 191-196 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ning Ma ◽

Cao Liu ◽

Pei Jing Wang ◽

Chu Yang Tang

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Water Permeability ◽

Water Flux ◽

Forward Osmosis ◽

Nanoporous Materials ◽

Nanocomposite Membranes ◽

Membrane Performance ◽

Thin Film Composite ◽

Internal Concentration ◽

Tfc Membrane

Nanocomposite membranes with enhanced performance were investigated for forward osmosis (FO) by incorporation of nanoporous materials. The incorporation of zeolite into both polysulfone (PSf) substrates and polyamide (PA) rejection layer of thin film composite (TFC) membrane (PSf-TFC) could effectively improve FO membrane performance. In the case of zeolite loading into PA layer, the resulted PSf based thin film nanocomposite (PSf-TFN) membrane showed improved but limited water permeability of the rejection layer, corresponding to ~1.76 times water flux higher than PSf-TFC membrane. Significantly, the polysulfone nanocomposite (PSfN) based TFC membrane (PSfN-TFC), which formed by embedding zeolite nanoparticles in PSf substrates, not only enhanced water permeability of the polyamide rejection layer but also reduced internal concentration polarization (ICP) effect, and thus improved FO membrane performance significantly, which corresponding to ~2.50 times water flux higher than PSf-TFC membrane.

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