Salt rejection by polymer membranes in reverse osmosis. II. Ionic polymers

Abstract

AbstractThe water permeability K1 [which is related to water flux J1 per unit membrane area by J1 = K1(Δp − ΔII)/ΔX, where Δp is the pressure difference, ΔII is the osmotic pressure of feed solution, and ΔX is the membrane thickness] of homogeneous ionic polymer membranes in reverse osmosis and their salt rejection Rs [which is given by Rs ≡ 1 − (C2″/C2′), where C2′ is the concentration of the salt in feed solution, and C2″ is the concentration of salt in effluent] were examined with cationic and anionic membranes of block and graft copolymers. For ionic membranes, Rs and K1 are related by K1 = A exp { − BRs}, where A and B are constants. This equation was found to be independent of the ion charge, the chemical nature of the polymer, and film morphology. The principle of salt rejection by ionic membranes was explained by the difference in the transport volumes (volume elements available for transport) for mobile co‐ions and water. The electric repulsive force between a fixed ion and a mobile co‐ion decreases the transport volume of the latter, thus creating a transport depletion of salt flux relative to water transport. This transport depletion is governed by the amount of water sorbed by a fixed ionic site, which also determines the water flux. Consequently, Rs and K1 for ionically charged membranes are related as described above. This relation significantly differs from that found between Rs and K1 for nonionic polymer membranes, where the size and the solubility of ions in the membrane are mainly responsible for the transport depletion. The decline of Rs with increasing K1 is much less in ionic membranes than in nonionic ones; however, in the high Rs region, K1 for both ionic and nonionic membranes become similar as the dominant mode of water transport changes from flow to diffusion.