Pure Polyamide Membrane Research Articles

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Gas Transport Properties in Cross-Linked Polyamide Membranes: Tracing the Morphology and Addition of Silicate Nanotubes.

This study employs molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to fundamentally provide insight into the role of cross-link density in the CO2 separation properties of interfacially polymerized polyamide (PA) membranes. For this purpose, two atomistic models of pure polyamide membranes with different cross-link densities are constructed by MD simulations to conceptually determine how the fractional free volume of polyamide affects the gas separation performance of the membrane. The PA membrane with a lower cross-link density (LCPA) shows a higher gas diffusion coefficient, a lower gas solubility coefficient, and a higher gas permeability than the PA membrane with a higher cross-link density (HCPA). Moreover, the pristine and modified silicate nanotubes (SNTs) as the fast gas transport channels are incorporated into the polyamide membranes to assess the effect of the SNT/PA interface chemistry on the CO2 separation properties of the membranes. SNTs are systematically modified by three modifying agents with different CO2-philic groups and different interfacial interaction energies with the polyamide matrix. The results of MD simulations demonstrate that the incorporation of silicate nanotubes into the PA matrix increases the gas diffusivity and permeability and decreases the CO2/gas selectivity. Moreover, the membranes containing modified SNTs possessing high CO2-philicity and high SNTs/PA interfacial interactions show a high CO2 separation performance.

Enhanced Water Flux of Aromatic Polyamide Membranes by Grafting Imidazolium‐Type Ionic Liquids Containing Silsesquioxane Frameworks

AbstractAn imidazolium‐type room‐temperature ionic liquid containing silsesquioxane frameworks is successfully prepared. The polar ionic liquid products are grafted onto the surface of prepared aromatic polyamide (PA) membranes to improve water flux of PA membranes. Membranes grafted with an ionic liquid exhibit a water flux of 1.89 L m−2 h−1 bar−1), 48% higher than that of pure PA membranes while the salt rejection still remains at 96%. This improvement can be attributed to the enhanced hydrophilicity of the membrane surface, as evidenced by the reduced water contact angle.

In situ assembly of graphitic carbon nitride/polypyrrole in a thin-film nanocomposite membrane with highly enhanced permeability and durability

Although thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes have been proposed as a competitive approach for improved reverse osmosis performance within the last decade, their intrinsically poor organic-inorganic interfacial compatibility and low durability still hinder further upscaling. In this study, a new in situ assembly strategy is proposed to solve this dilemma by using polypyrrole (PPy) to build a bridge between polyamide matrix and nanomaterial (graphitic carbon nitride, g-C3N4) and further fabricate g-C3N4/PPy-incorporated TFN membrane. The synthesized g-C3N4/PPy nanocomposites are hybridized into the interfacial polymerization process, which endows the TFN membrane with a smaller “ridge-valley”, higher hydrophilic and thinner polyamide layer. With 0.005 wt% of g-C3N4/PPy, the water permeability of TFN membrane is increased to 377 % (4.0 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1), while keeping a similar NaCl rejection (99.1 %) to pure polyamide membrane. Importantly, the resulting TFN membrane exhibits high chlorine resistance in acidic, neutral and alkaline environments. Moreover, the TFN membrane has superior antifouling performance for organic, inorganic and mixed organic-inorganic foulants, which is of vital importance for the long service life of TFN membranes. This study offers a facile avenue to solve the application needs of advanced TFN membranes for efficient desalination with stable high-quality water.

MOFs-mediated nanoscale Turing structure in polyamide membrane for enhanced nanofiltration

This work reported the successful preparation of a novel nano-Turing structure polyamide membrane. By introducing polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) into UiO-66-NH2, PVP-UiO-66-NH2 with high water hydrophilicity and low particle size was synthesized. The aqueous phase dispersion containing PVP-UiO-66-NH2 was loaded on the support through vacuum filtration method, and PVP-UiO-66-NH2 was fused in the polyamide layer via traditional interfacial polymerization (IP) technology. The existence of PVP-UiO-66-NH2 induced the occurrence of “local activation and lateral inhibition” in the IP system, resulting in the appearance of nano-Turing structure on the membrane surface. The successful preparation of PVP-UiO-66-NH2@polyamide composite membrane with uniform distribution of PVP-UiO-66-NH2 was proved. The PVP-UiO-66-NH2@polyamide composite membrane showed excellent water permeability of 32.95 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and stable Na2SO4 removal rate of 99.35 %, compared with 17.56 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and 99.56 % of pure polyamide membrane under the same conditions. In addition, the PVP-UiO-66-NH2@polyamide composite membrane exhibited excellent long-term filtration stability, thermal stability and antibacterial property.

Highly permeable composite nanofiltration membrane via γ-cyclodextrin modulation for multiple applications

The treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater has become a worldwide problem. Highly efficient treatment for wastewater is extremely critical for ecological environment. Herein, a thin-film nanofibrous composite (TFNC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane modulated by γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD) was prepared via interfacial polymerization. The γ-CD and piperazine (PIP) were adopted and acting as the mixed reaction monomers in aqueous phase for the fabrication of the separation layer. Not only PIP, γ-CD units would also react with organic phase trimesoyl chloride (TMC) at the interface and participate into the polymerization network. Compared with pure polyamide TFNC membranes, the γ-CD modulated TFNC membranes demonstrated thinner skin thickness. Owing to the 3D hollow structure of γ-CD, the self-contained through cavities would provide additional direct nanochannels to facilitate the water transport. Under 0.5 MPa, the optimized PIP0.5γCD0.5 and PIP0.5γCD1.5 TFNC membranes showed much higher permeate flux of 23.27 and 26.34 L m-2h−1 bar−1, respectively, than that of pure polyamide membranes (9.13 and 9.85 L m-2h−1 bar−1) and the Na2SO4 rejection remained high (>98.7%). Moreover, both TFNC membranes exhibited extremely high rejection (>99%) for several pharmaceuticals (doxycycline hydrochloride, tetracycline, and amoxicillin), and the PIP0.5γCD0.5 TFNC membrane exhibited a good separation factor (31.8) for NaCl/tetracycline solution. In addition, both optimized TFNC membranes showed good pressure resistance and long-term operating stability. This research revealed a facile modulation strategy for the fabrication of high-performance NF membrane and indicated the great promise for desalination, pharmaceuticals wastewater treatment and antibiotics concentration.

Polyamide@GO microporous membrane with enhanced permeability for the molecular sieving of nitrogen over VOC

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) are typically fabricated by mechanically mixing presynthesized polymers and fillers together in a solvent to form a membrane solution, which often causes poor filler dispersion in the polymer matrix. In this work, an in situ polymerization method was proposed by which 2,6,14-triaminotriptycene (Trip), octanedioyl chloride, and graphene oxide (GO) reacted in the polymerization to form a polyamide@GO mixed matrix polymer. Different characterization methods, such as Raman analysis, XRD (X-ray diffraction), and TGA (thermogravimetric analysis), were used to verify the chemical linking between GO and polyamide. The performance of the polyamide@GO membrane in the separation of cyclohexane/nitrogen mixtures was evaluated and compared with that of pure polyamide membranes and mechanically mixed polyamide + GO membranes. The polyamide@GO membrane with a GO content of 0.3 wt% exhibited the highest separation performance. The permeability increased from 427 Barrer to 1098 Barrer under the same rejection (99.4%) conditions compared with that of the pure polyamide membrane. Because incorporation of GO disrupted the efficient stacking of polyamide chains, more amorphous domains were formed, providing more transport channels. This work provides an alternative way to overcome the trade-off phenomenon in the synthesis of new MMMs.

Incorporation of Silver-Embedded Carbon Nanotubes Coated with Tannic Acid into Polyamide Reverse Osmosis Membranes toward High Permeability, Antifouling, and Antibacterial Properties

In this work, tannic acid (TA)-functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT@TA) were synthesized by hydrogen bond and π–π stacking interactions. CNT@TA embedded with silver nanoparticles (Ag-CNT@TA) was obtained by in situ reducing silver ammonia ions in the pore channels of CNT@TA. CNT@TA and Ag-CNT@TA were added into the polyamide (PA) layer by interfacial polymerization to fabricate high-performance nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes. The results show that the functionalized CNTs can be uniformly distributed in the PA matrix with random orientations. A loose PA separation layer was obtained by introducing CNT@TA. Correspondingly, abundant new water channels were formed. Compared with the pure PA membrane, the water permeability (4.81 L m–2 h–1 bar–1) of the nanocomposite membrane is enhanced by 49.8% without any loss in NaCl rejection (99.3%). The membrane exhibits satisfactory chemical- and bio-fouling resistances to bovine serum albumin and Escherichia coli as model foulants. The high bactericidal rate should be ascribed to the formation of the TA coating and confined Ag nanoparticles in CNT channels. The confined structure effectively avoids the leaching out of the Ag nanoparticles and keeps the persistence of the antibacterial property. The excellent compatibility between the CNTs and the polyamide matrix endows the membrane with long-term performance stability.

Mechanism of permeance enhancement in mixed-matrix reverse osmosis membranes incorporated with graphene and its oxides

• Mechanism of permeance enhancement in Gr/PA and GO/PA mixed-matrix membranes is investigated. • The hydrophobic nature of Gr leads to the lower interior transport resistance of water molecules. • Higher water solubility enhances the permeance of GO/PA MMMs. • The contributions of solubility and diffusivity for MMMs are quantitatively revealed. Fabricating mixed-matrix reverse osmosis (RO) membranes via incorporating nanocomposites is a promising strategy to enhance permeance performance without sacrificing the ion rejection. To better design such mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs), the transport mechanism of water molecules through them is urgently desired. Compared to the stiff inorganic nanoparticles, the flexible graphene (Gr) and its oxides (GO) attract much attention due to their better compatibility with aromatic polyamide (PA) matrix. In this work, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of water passing through highly cross-linked PA membranes, Gr/PA and GO/PA MMMs are performed to reveal the transport mechanism. The simulation results show that the MMMs exhibit higher permeance compared to the pure PA membranes. After analyzing the transport details of water molecules, we discovered that the permeance enhancement for two types of MMMs result from distinct factors. While the Gr/PA MMMs have lower interior transport resistance because of the hydrophobic nature of Gr, the permeance enhancement of GO/PA MMMs should be attributed to the higher solubility of water molecules into MMMs. Therefore, a proper hydrophilicity of RO membrane, which has lower interior transport resistance while having higher solubility, is expected for the optimized performance.

In silico study of structure and water dynamics in CNT/polyamide nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes.

CNT-based reverse osmosis membranes have long been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for water desalination. However, it is a pity that there is no complete understanding of the exact role of CNTs in those nanocomposite membranes. To address this issue, three atomistic models of PA (pure polyamide membrane), PA-CNT1 (polyamide nanocomposite membrane with an embedded carbon nanotube oriented vertical to the membrane surface) and PA-CNT2 (polyamide nanocomposite with an embedded carbon nanotube oriented parallel to the membrane surface) were constructed respectively in this work. Then, equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations were conducted to investigate the structure and water dynamics in these three models. The EMD simulations revealed a better stacking of the PA matrix due to the addition of the CNT and this impact was more significant in PA-CNT1 than in PA-CNT2. Meanwhile, PA matrix near the mouth of the CNT was found to behave as an obstruction that hindered the exchange of water molecules inside and outside the CNT. In NEMD simulations, we found that water molecules were guided away from the CNT because of the better stacked surrounding PA matrix. The partially covered CNT might not help to increase water flux in PA-CNT1 while guided water molecules and the smaller polymer region afftected by the CNT contributed to a relatively high flux in PA-CNT2. The current work might serve as a comprehensive understanding of the role of CNTs in the reverse osmosis process.

High flux thin-film nanocomposites with embedded boron nitride nanotubes for nanofiltration

A novel thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane was obtained by incorporating boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) into a polyamide (PA) thin selective layer prepared via interfacial polymerisation. The addition of just 0.02 wt% of BNNTs led to a 4-fold increase in pure water permeance with no loss in rejection for divalent salts, methylene blue or humic acid compared to the pure PA membrane. Loadings higher than 0.02 wt% of BNNTs led to agglomeration with overall loss of performance. For the membranes containing 0.02 wt% BNNTs, the pure water permeance was 4.5 LMH@bar, with >90% rejection of MgSO4 and >80% rejection of CaCl2. Fouling tests with humic acid showed a flux recovery ratio of >95% with ~50% lower flux loss during the fouling cycle compared to the polyamide only membrane. These values represent a significant improvement over both commercial polyamide membranes and TFN membranes incorporating carbon nanotubes. We assert that the very small quantity of BNNTs needed to produce the enhanced performance opens the way to their use in water treatment applications where nanofiltration membranes are subject to severe organic fouling.

Loose nanofiltration membrane for dye/salt separation through interfacial polymerization with in-situ generated TiO2 nanoparticles

In this study, a high flux nanofiltration (NF) membrane with hybrid polymer-nanoparticle active layer was fabricated by chemical crosslinking of piperazine (PIP) and 1, 3, 5-benzene tricarbonyl trichloride (TMC). An in-situ generated method was applied to deposit titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles uniformly on the membrane surface, leading to the enhancement of the surface hydrophilicity, roughness and relative surface area of the polyamide (PA) layer. The morphology of the modified membrane was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Atomic force microscopy (AFM), also energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDX) was used to analyze the distribution of Ti element. Chemical structure was observed by Fourier transmission infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy. Remarkably, the optimal water flux of the loose NF membrane was 65.0Lm−2h−1bar−1 nearly 5 times as much as the pure PA membrane flux. The rejections of the loose NF membranes for dyes were almost all greater than 95.0%, while the rejection for sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) was only about 17.0%, which indicated that the modified membrane had an impressive potential application for dye desalination and purification.

Layer-by-Layer Fabrication of High-Performance Polyamide/ZIF-8 Nanocomposite Membrane for Nanofiltration Applications.

The conventional blending fabrication for thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes is to disperse porous fillers in aqueous/organic phases prior to interfacial polymerization, and the aggregation of fillers may lead to the significant decrease in membrane performance. To overcome this limitation, we proposed a novel layer-by-layer (LBL) fabrication to prepare a polyamide (PA)/ZIF-8 nanocomposite membrane with a multilayer structure: a porous substrate, a ZIF-8 interlayer, and a PA coating layer. The PA/ZIF-8 (LBL) membrane for nanofiltration applications was prepared by growing an interlayer of ZIF-8 nanoparticles on an ultrafiltration membrane through in situ growth and then coating it with an ultrathin PA layer through interfacial polymerization. The obtained PA/ZIF-8 (LBL) membrane exhibited both better permeance and selectivity than did the conventional PA/ZIF-8 TFN membrane because of the ZIF-8 in situ growth producing a ZIF-8 interlayer with more ZIF-8 nanoparticles but fewer aggregates. Compared with the pure PA membrane (the flux of 11.2 kg/m(2)/h and rejection of 99.6%) for dye removal, the obtained PA/ZIF-8 (LBL) membranes achieved a significant improvement in membrane permeance and selectivity. (Flux was up to 27.1 kg/m(2)/h, and the rejection reaches 99.8%.) This LBL fabrication is a promising methodology for other polymer nanocomposite membranes simultaneously having high permeance and good selectivity.

Exploring the effect of additives on polyamide membrane surface for seawater desalination using density functional tools

The efficiency of certain additives like tryptophan (TRP), adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and phenethylamine (PEA) on polyamide membrane (PA) surface for better salt rejection is studied through density functional theory. The interaction energies of monovalent (Na+, K+) and divalent (Ca2+, Mg2+) cations with pure PA and modified PA surfaces are calculated and a stronger binding of divalent cations over monovalent cations is noticed. The increasing order of binding of PA surfaces with metal-ions is PA_PEA<PA<PA_AMP<PA_TRP. The two major factors influencing the binding of metal ions to the surfaces are cation–π interactions between the metal ion and the π-cloud of the additive and the nucleophilic character of the membrane surface. The increasing order of metal ion binding to any of the PA surface is K+<Na+<Ca2+<Mg2+. Both gas phase and solvent phase interaction energies follow the same trend of metal ion binding to the PA surface. The findings from the interaction studies are supported by conceptual density functional descriptors. TRP and AMP bound PA surfaces with polar functional groups are relatively presented as an effectual membrane surface for salt rejection than the pure polyamide surface.

Polyamide–POSS hybrid membranes for seawater desalination: Effect of POSS inclusion on membrane properties

We have shown using both experiments and simulations that incorporation of polyoctahedral oligomeric silsequioxanes (POSS) into the active layer of polyamide (PA) thin film composite membrane results in higher water flux and salt rejection than pure PA membranes. We report that the water flux increased by a factor of 1.32 and salt rejection increased from 99.0% to 99.62% for the PA–POSS. Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to study the effect of POSS on membrane polymerization, water and salt diffusion and free volume. Quantities, such as water diffusivity, water partition coefficient, fractional free volume and range of free volume size computed on the equilibrated configurations, increased on the inclusion of POSS in PA membranes. Moreover salt diffusivity was lower in PA–POSS than PA. Therefore from the simulation study, it was concluded that the introduction of POSS into PA membrane improved (a) porosity of composite membrane, (b) hydrophilicity and (c) charge on the membrane. These effects explain the increase of water flux and salt rejection in nanocomposite membranes.

Fabrication and characterization of polyamide thin film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration membrane impregnated with TiO2 nanoparticles

A novel thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration membrane has been developed via interfacial incorporation of aminosilanized TiO2 nanoparticles. Polyethersulfone (PES) barrier coating on a porous α-Al2O3 ceramic hollow fibre membrane was employed as the substrate layer. TiO2 nanoparticles were incorporated in pure and functionalized forms into trimesoyl chloride (TMC) organic phase and m-phenylenediamine (m-PDA) aqueous phase, respectively. The surface functionalization of TiO2 nanoparticle was confirmed by XRD, FTIR and UV-vis reflectance spectral analysis. Surface properties of the fabricated composite membranes were investigated using SEM, EDX, AFM and contact angle goniometry. Heat resistibility of polyamide layers were examined using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). Membranes intrinsic properties such as: the permeability, selectivity and pore size determination were also elucidated. The silane coupling agent containing amino-functional groups reinforced TiO2 nano fillers for the good dispersion inside the polyamide skin layer by reducing their surface energy. At ultra-low concentration (0.005wt.%), the functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles improved the salt rejection to 54% as well as water flux to 12.3l/m2h. By incorporating a higher concentration of TiO2 nanoparticles, water flux was increased up to 2-fold compared with the pure polyamide membrane with negligible rejection loss. These results demonstrated competency of using functionalized inorganic nanoparticles to increase the product flux and the separation efficiency.

An Effective Method to Improve the Performance of Fixed Carrier Membrane via Incorporation of CO 2-selective Adsorptive Silica Nanoparticles

Fixed carrier membrane exhibits attractive CO 2 permeance and selectivity due to its transport mechanism of reaction selectivity (facilitated transport). However, its performance needs improvement to meet cost targets for CO 2 capture. This study attempts to develop membranes with multiple permselective mechanisms in order to enhance CO 2 separation performance of fixed carrier membrane. In this study, a novel membrane with multiple permselective mechanisms of solubility selectivity and reaction selectivity was developed by incorporating CO 2-selective adsorptive silica nanoparticles in situ into the tertiary amine containing polyamide membrane formed by interfacial polymerization (IP). Various techniques were employed to characterize the polyamide and polyamide-silica composite membranes. The TGA result shows that nanocomposite membranes exhibit superior thermal stability than pure polyamide membranes. In addition, gas permeation experiments show that both nanocomposite membranes have larger CO 2 permeance than pure polyamide membranes. The enhanced CO 2/N 2 separation performance for nanocomposite membranes is mainly due to the thin film thickness, and multiple permselective mechanisms of solubility selectivity and reaction selectivity.

Effect of added NaX nano-zeolite into polyamide as a top thin layer of membrane on water flux and salt rejection in a reverse osmosis process

The thin film nanocomposite of polyamide and nano-NaX zeolite (40–150 nm) membranes was coated via interfacial polymerization of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD) monomers over porous polyethersulfone ultrafiltartion support. Different types of nanocomposite films were synthesized by two levels of monomer concentrations and nanozeolite loading into the polyamide film. The prepared nanocomposite membranes had higher thermal stability and more water permeability than the pure polyamide membranes. The results showed that addition of nano-NaX zeolite to the polyamide membrane led to improvement of surface properties such as RMS roughness, contact angle and solid–liquid interfacial free energy, a decrease in film thickness and an increase in pore size and water flux. The nanocomposite membranes with high concentration of monomers in interfacial polymerization exhibited a high water flux and low salt rejection. Excellent membrane performance was observed for the nanocomposite membrane containing about 0.2% (w/v) nano-NaX zeolite, 0.1% (w/v) TMC and 2% (w/v) MPD which its flux was higher by 1.8 times than the flux value of the neat polyamide membrane without any change in salt rejection.

Enhanced performance of inorganic-polyamide nanocomposite membranes prepared by metal-alkoxide-assisted interfacial polymerization

A promising strategy is reported for the synthesis of inorganic-polyamide nanocomposite membranes on an ultrafiltration polysulfone support via metal-alkoxide-assisted interfacial polymerization. Three types of nanocomposite membranes were prepared using three different metal alkoxides. The metal alkoxides used here were titanium tetraisopropoxide, bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane and phenyltriethoxysilane. The as-prepared nanocomposite membranes exhibited performance superior to that of the pure polyamide membrane. Water flux and salt rejection were observed for each of the nanocomposite membranes. Addition of greater amounts of metal alkoxide to the hexane solution increased both pore size and water flux, which were determined by analysis of the membrane permeation data using aqueous solutions of sodium chloride and organic solutes at a pressure of 1.5 MPa and a temperature of 25 °C. The best nanocomposite membrane that was prepared with phenyltriethoxysilane showed water flux that was increased approximately 2-fold compared with the pure polyamide membrane with negligible rejection loss.

Synthesis of novel silica-polyamide nanocomposite membrane with enhanced properties

A synthesis method of polyamide nanocomposite film of about 400–800 nm thickness coated over porous polysulfone support via interfacial polymerization to produce thin film nanocomposite membrane with enhanced properties is described here. Two types of nanocomposite films were prepared by incorporating two types of silica nanoparticles in situ into the polyamide films, one was commercially available LUDOX ® HS-40 of which the particle size is about 16 nm and the other has the size of about 3 nm which was synthesised in our laboratory from hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in acidic medium. The nanocomposite membranes exhibit superior thermal stability than the pure polyamide membranes; and in both the nanocomposite types, the best membrane performance in terms of separation efficiency and productivity flux was observed in the membrane with a certain amount of silica loading. Higher silica loading into the polymer resulted into a thicker nanocomposite membrane film formation; and at the same time these nanocomposite membranes have relatively large pore sizes as well as higher pore number density, as determined by the analysis of membrane permeation data of aqueous solutions of organic solutes and sodium chloride at pressures ranging from 50 to 400 psig. Depending on the silica content, the average pore radii membranes vary from smaller radius of 0.34 nm to fairly a larger radius of 0.73 nm.

Interfacial polymerization of thin film nanocomposites: A new concept for reverse osmosis membranes

Here, we report on a new concept for formation of mixed matrix reverse osmosis membranes by interfacial polymerization of nanocomposite thin films in situ on porous polysulfone supports. Nanocomposite films created for this study comprise NaA zeolite nanoparticles dispersed within 50–200 nm thick polyamide films. Hand-cast pure polyamide membranes exhibit surface morphologies characteristic of commercial polyamide RO membranes, whereas nanocomposite membranes have measurably smoother and more hydrophilic, negatively charged surfaces. At the highest nanoparticle loadings tested, hand-cast nanocomposite film morphology is visibly different and pure water permeability is nearly double that of hand-cast polyamide membranes with equivalent solute rejections. Comparison of membranes formed using pore-filled and pore-opened zeolites suggest nanoparticle pores play an active role in water permeation and solute rejection. The best performing nanocomposite membranes exhibit permeability and rejection characteristics comparable to commercial RO membranes. As a concept, thin film nanocomposite membrane technology may offer new degrees of freedom in tailoring RO membrane separation performance and material properties.