Abstract
How the structure of skin layer determines the structure of incipient film and final membrane formed during interfacial polymerization is decisive for polyamide composite membranes but difficult to monitor. This work introduced a methodology to predict an estimated initial molar ratio between monomers (η) via introducing pore diameter (dp), porosity (εSkin), tortuosity (τSkin), and thickness (lSkin) of skin layer to Fick's diffusion law to correct flux of monomers. The structure of skin layer was regulated via in-situ preparation of sacrificial precipitation. With characterized parameters of dp = 25.91 nm, εSkin = 8.32%, τSkin = 7.41, and lSkin = 260 nm, η was 4.25. The resultant forward osmosis membrane exhibited flux of 58.83 ± 3.58 L/(m2·h) and reverse salt flux of 10.68 ± 2.38 g/(m2·h) under AL-DS mode with 1.0 mol/L NaCl and DI as draw and feed solution, respectively, which had broken historical upper boundary. The proposed methodology can make quantitative prediction for the structural performance of polyamide composite membranes.
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