Effects of hydrophilic solvent and oxidation resistance post surface treatment on molecular structure and forward osmosis performance of polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) membranes

Abstract

In this article, novel hydrophilic solvents and antioxidants were used to post-treat aromatic polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) hollow fiber forward osmosis (FO) membranes. The effects of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and oxalic acid on the structure of polyamide skin layer were investigated using ATR-FTIR and XPS analyses. Pure water flux and rejection of salts were detected using 2M NaCl solution as draw solutions in FO processes. The results demonstrated that hydrophilic solvent N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) enhanced the water flux and kept a high salt retention of the TFC FO membrane. TMC and oxalic acid were both found to improve the oxidation resistance properties of the skin layer of TFC membrane because the electron-withdrawing carboxyl groups reduced the activity of polyamide molecular. The effects of the oxalic acid and carbodiimide on the molecular structures and the FO water flux of the polyamide TFC membranes were more marked than those of TMC. The novel TFC FO membrane treated by oxalic acid and 1-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) exhibited a high level of water flux (20.33Lm−2h−1), and the rates of salt rejection and salt reverse rejection were higher by 50% and 83%, respectively.