Novel Maleic Acid, Crosslinked, Nanofibrous Chitosan/Poly (Vinylpyrrolidone) Membranes for Reverse Osmosis Desalination.

Israr Ali,Rashid Mehmood,Rafi Ullah Khan,Nafisa Gull,Sang Hyun Park,Atif Islam,Muhammad Asim Raza,Bilal Haider,Aneela Sabir

doi:10.3390/ijms21197338

Abstract

Fresh and clean water is consistently depleting and becoming a serious problem with rapid increases in population, so seawater desalination technology has captured global attention. For an efficient desalination process, this work proposes a novel, nanofibrous, thin-film composite membrane (NF-TFC) based on the deposition of the nanofibrous active layer of a blend of chitosan (CS) and poly (vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) crosslinked with maleic acid on a 3-triethoxysilylpropylamine functionalized cellulose acetate substrate. FTIR analysis demonstrated the development of chemical and physical interactions and confirmed the incorporation of functional groups present in the NF-TFC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs depict the fibrous structure of the active layers. The reverse osmosis (RO) desalination characteristics of NF-TFC membranes are elevated by increasing the concentration of the crosslinker in a CS/PVP blend. Cellulose acetate (CA)-S4 attained an optimal salt rejection of 98.3% and permeation flux of 42.9 L/m2h, suggesting that the NF-TFC membranes could be favorable for seawater desalination.

Highlights

Water is vital for the survival of all living organisms and human life, but over the past few decades, scarcity of fresh drinking water is becoming an alarming issue [1]
A novel active layer of maleic acid, crosslinked CS/PVP membranes were synthesized by incorporating the various concentrations of maleic acid
The nanofibrous active layer has been fabricated on the APTES-functionalized cellulose acetate (CA) substrate using an electrospinning setup, which was confirmed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs

Summary

Introduction

Water is vital for the survival of all living organisms and human life, but over the past few decades, scarcity of fresh drinking water is becoming an alarming issue [1]. 97% of the total volume of water is available as sea water, while 2% is trapped by glaciers and icecaps. 0.8% is readily available as fresh and clean drinkable water [2]. Owing to the substantial rise in population, the clean water demand in 2030 will be increased to 6900 billion m3 from current consumption of water [3]. Sea water is abundantly available, which can fulfill this demand, but it is salty and inappropriate to drink. Many researchers have focused on desalination techniques to remove salts and other minerals from sea and brackish water [4]. RO is one of the prominent technologies for desalination, and is becoming pivotal and suitable because of its reliability, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, and salt rejection rate [5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion