Tailoring the asymmetric structure of polyamide reverse osmosis membrane with self-assembled aromatic nanoparticles for high-efficient removal of organic micropollutants

Abstract

Abstract The widespread occurrence of organic micropollutants (OMPs) in water has serious effects on the environment and human health. Recently, reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology has been used for resolving this emerging concern, and the state-of-the-art polyamide RO membranes are normally fabricated by the interfacial polymerization method. Further reducing the energy consumption and operation cost, developing high-performance polyamide RO membranes will be the key for resolving the issue of effective removal of OMPs. Herein, a new strategy is proposed for fabricating robust and high-efficient polyamide RO membranes via the self-assembled aromatic nanoparticles (SANs) controlled interfacial polymerization (SANCIP) method. The membrane surface characteristics and interior microstructures of polyamide layer could be conveniently manipulated by regulating the SAN nanoparticles size and content. The SANs tuned polyamide membrane (PAM-SAN) with asymmetric structure, e.g., much looser and crumpled front surface and much denser and smooth rear surface, exhibits ultra-high water flux ~ 67.8 L∙m−2∙h−1 and satisfactory NaCl rejection (>98.3%), as well as very high OMPs rejection (>99.4%). Moreover, the PAM-SAN membrane has good stability and anti-fouling performance in long-term RO running process. This facile and cost-effective strategy provides a useful guideline in designing high-performance polyamide membranes with a vast potential in the removal of OMPs for advanced water treatment.