TY - JOUR
T1 - A Facile and Scalable Fabrication Procedure for Thin-Film Composite Membranes
T2 - Integration of Phase Inversion and Interfacial Polymerization
AU - Liu, Yanling
AU - Zhu, Junyong
AU - Zheng, Junfeng
AU - Gao, Xiaoqi
AU - Wang, Jing
AU - Wang, Xiaomao
AU - Xie, Yuefeng F.
AU - Huang, Xia
AU - Van Der Bruggen, Bart
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the fundings for this research provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 51678331 51978367, and 51761125013). Y.L. would like to acknowledge the support provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC) of the Ministry of Education P. R. China.
Funding Information:
We acknowledge the fundings for this research provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 51678331, 51978367, and 51761125013). Y.L. would like to acknowledge the support provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC) of the Ministry of Education, P. R. China.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/2/4
Y1 - 2020/2/4
N2 - Conventional dense thin-film composite (TFC) membranes evince a universally low water permeability, the increase of which typically relies on introducing additional transport channels based on intricate steps within a membrane preparation process. In this study, we reported a novel and simplified procedure for the fabrication of high-performance TFC membranes. Specifically, the dissolution of aqueous monomers in the casting solution was utilized for the following interfacial polymerization (IP). Since the monomers diffused to the water bath during phase inversion, the control of precipitation time enabled an effective regulation of the monomer concentration in the formed polymeric substrates, where the IP reaction was initiated by the addition of the organic phase. The entire and uniform embedment of aqueous monomers inside the substrates contributed to the formation of ultrathin and smooth selective layers. An excellent separation performance (i.e., water permeability: 34.7 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 Na2SO4 rejection: ∼96%) could be attained using two types of aqueous monomers (i.e., piperazine and β-cyclodextrin), demonstrating the effectiveness and universality of this method. Compared to the conventional immersion-based process, this novel procedure shows distinct advantages in reducing monomer usage, shortening the production cycle, and achieving a more superior membrane performance, which is highly promising for large-scale membrane manufacture.
AB - Conventional dense thin-film composite (TFC) membranes evince a universally low water permeability, the increase of which typically relies on introducing additional transport channels based on intricate steps within a membrane preparation process. In this study, we reported a novel and simplified procedure for the fabrication of high-performance TFC membranes. Specifically, the dissolution of aqueous monomers in the casting solution was utilized for the following interfacial polymerization (IP). Since the monomers diffused to the water bath during phase inversion, the control of precipitation time enabled an effective regulation of the monomer concentration in the formed polymeric substrates, where the IP reaction was initiated by the addition of the organic phase. The entire and uniform embedment of aqueous monomers inside the substrates contributed to the formation of ultrathin and smooth selective layers. An excellent separation performance (i.e., water permeability: 34.7 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 Na2SO4 rejection: ∼96%) could be attained using two types of aqueous monomers (i.e., piperazine and β-cyclodextrin), demonstrating the effectiveness and universality of this method. Compared to the conventional immersion-based process, this novel procedure shows distinct advantages in reducing monomer usage, shortening the production cycle, and achieving a more superior membrane performance, which is highly promising for large-scale membrane manufacture.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079018282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85079018282&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.9b06426
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.9b06426
M3 - Article
C2 - 31916754
AN - SCOPUS:85079018282
VL - 54
SP - 1946
EP - 1954
JO - Environmental Science & Technology
JF - Environmental Science & Technology
SN - 0013-936X
IS - 3
ER -