Abstract
Novel thin film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) membranes blended with 0.01–0.2 wt.% of Acacia gum (AG) have been prepared using the interfacial polymerization technique. The properties of the prepared membranes were evaluated using contact angle, zeta potential measurements, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and surface profilometer. It was found that the use of AG as an additive to TFC PA membranes increased the membrane’s hydrophilicity (by 45%), surface charge (by 16%) as well as water flux (by 1.2-fold) compared with plain PA membrane. In addition, the prepared PA/AG membranes possessed reduced surface roughness (by 63%) and improved antifouling behavior while maintaining NaCl rejection above 96%. The TFC PA/AG membranes were tested with seawater collected from the Arabian Gulf and showed higher salt rejection and lower flux decline during filtration when compared to commercial membranes (GE Osmonics and Dow SW30HR). These findings indicate that AG can be used as an efficient additive to enhance the properties of TFC PA membranes.
Highlights
Membrane desalination by reverse osmosis (RO) is the most-frequently used technology to provide freshwater from saline water in industrial scale
It was found that the hydrophilicity of PA/Acacia gum (AG) membranes increased compared with technique
It was found that the hydrophilicity of membranes increased
Summary
Membrane desalination by reverse osmosis (RO) is the most-frequently used technology to provide freshwater from saline water in industrial scale. The introduction of different additives to the TFC membrane during the preparation process has been widely reported in the literature to adjust some important membrane properties such as: surface charge, roughness, hydrophilicity, fouling resistance, and chemical stability [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. It was reported that SMM were incorporated into the aromatic PA layer of the TFC membrane effectively and the prepared membranes exhibited less flux decay over an extended operational period due to a change in the membrane’s hydrophilicity and surface roughness. It was shown that the amphiphilic nature of AG can be utilized to enhance the performance of PA TFC membranes in terms of flux and antifouling properties
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