Abstract
To improve the filtration performance and properties of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes, we firstly introduce nanoporous silica (SiO2) particles into the polyamide (PA) active layer of polysulfone (PSf) membrane via an interfacial polymerization process. Results from the study revealed that introduction of SiO2 influenced the properties of PSf/PA-SiO2 composite membranes by changing the surface roughness and hydrophilicity. Moreover, results also indicated that nanoporous SiO2 modified membranes showed an improved performance of alcohols solvent permeance. The PSf/PA-SiO2 composite membrane modified by 0.025 wt % of SiO2 reached a permeance of 3.29 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for methanol and 0.42 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for ethanol, which were 20.0% and 13.5% higher than the control PSf membrane (permeance of 2.74 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for methanol and 0.37 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for ethanol). Conclusively, we demonstrated that the increase of membrane hydrophilicity and roughness were major factors contributing to the improved alcohols solvent permeance of the membranes.
Highlights
Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes could be classified as organic polymeric membranes and inorganic ceramic membranes according to the membrane materials applied for membrane fabrication [4,5,6,7]
Polysulfone was purchased from Solvay S.A., Shanghai, China. 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP, ammonium (25~28% NH3 ·H2 O), sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), triethylamine (TEA), hexane, methanol, and ethanol were purchased from Sinopharm Ltd., Shanghai, China
SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results indicated an increase of membrane roughness after SiO2 introduction
Summary
Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) or solvent resistant nanofiltration (SRNF) have attracted major attention as promising technologies in the purification and separation process, especially in lube oil dewaxing [1], enhanced catalysis [2] and isolation and concentration of pharmaceuticals [3]. Among these fabrication methods, blending membranes with inorganic nanoparticles such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) [6,27,28], metals [29] or carbide [30,31] has been widely used to fabricate inorganic-organic composite membranes Among these nanoparticles, silica (SiO2 ) has been proved to be a promising candidate to blend with membrane during the process of casting solution preparation [24,25], and has shown benefits such as low cost, a simple synthesis process, high chemical stability and excellent hydrophilicity. To further investigate the property of OSN membranes, a series of analyses, such as SEM, AFM, water contact angle and a long-term filtration test were carried out to characterize the effect of SiO2 nanoparticles on the structure and performance of the OSN membranes
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