Abstract
A novel thin-?lm composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was developed by the interfacial polymerization (IP) of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylene diamine (MPD) on the hollow fibre ultrafiltration polysulphone (PS) membrane. The performance of the TFC membrane was optimized by studying the preparation parameters, which included monomer TMC concentration, monomer MPD concentration and alcohol additive in aqueous solution. The reverse osmosis performance of the resulting membrane was evaluated through permeation experiment with 1000 ppm NaCl at 0.7 MPa. The results showed that the optimum concentration of MPD and TMC were 0.5wt% and 3g/L, respectively. To improve flux, alcohol was added to the aqueous phase, when certain concentration of alcohol was added to the aqueous solution, the flux of the prepared membrane increased from 5.0 to 9.1 L /(m 2 ·h) without loss in salt rejection. The properties and structures of skin layer of RO composite membranes were characterized by AFM. It was found that IP had occurred and the separation layer was formed, and the novel reverse osmosis membrane appears to comprise a thicker, smoother and less cross-linking film structure. Additionally, the TFC membrane exhibits good long-term stability.
Highlights
Chemicals and regentsThe chemicals, trimesoyl chloride (TMC), m-phenylenediamine (MPD), were used without further purification
(polycondensation) reaction between two monomers dissolved in water and hydrocarbon solvent, respectively (Roh, Kim et al 2002; Freger 2003; Li, Zhang et al 2007)
A composite membrane was obtained by making contact with an organic solution containing 0.5wt% trimesoyl chloride (TMC) for 30s with the surface area of supporting film that was previously coated with the aqueous solution, and drying the film in a ventilation hood until heptane evaporated so that a skin layer was formed on the supporting film
Summary
The chemicals, trimesoyl chloride (TMC), m-phenylenediamine (MPD), were used without further purification. Commercial UF polysulfone (PS) membranes of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) 20,000 kD used as the support membrane were obtained from Tianjin Motimo membrane technology LTD. Monomer MPD (purity >99.5%) was purchased from Tianjin Guanfu Fine Chemical Research Institute, China, and key functional monomer TMC (purity >99.0%) was obtained from Beijin Odyssey chemical Co. Ltd. Sodium chloride were provided by Tianjin Kermel Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd. All the other regents were of analytical grade unless specified
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