Performance Of Thin-film Composite Membrane Research Articles

Modeling the selective attenuation of thin film composite membranes: Implementing the mass transfer perspective

Numerous experiments have demonstrated that the porous support layer limits the diffusion behavior and leads to a reduction in permeability of thin film composite (TFC) membranes. Although this geometric restriction has been described using empirical models, it is still rough and unable to describe the effect of support layer on selectivity, an accurate theoretical model to quantitatively calculate the permeation performance of TFC membranes is lacking. In this study, an equivalent theoretical model is proposed to describe the mass transfer process of TFC membrane, by properly handling the tangential diffusion at the interface between the selective layer and the support layer. Both the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations performed in this work and experimental data in some literatures prove the validity of the equivalent model. Analysis of the theoretical model and CFD simulation results show that: Restriction factor Ψ is independent of the solubility coefficients but dependent of the diffusion coefficients and support layers, which would alter the TFC membrane selectivity to the diffusing species with different diffusion coefficients. Tuning the structural parameters of the support layer is an effective way to bring the performance of TFC membranes closer to that of ideal free-standing membranes. Among them, High surface porosity of the support layer is the most critical factor affecting TFC membrane performance, both for permeability and selectivity.

Enhancing separation and long-term performance of reverse osmosis desalination through the incorporation of 15-crown-5 in thin-film composite membranes with Li+ and Na+ augmentation

Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes have been intensively studied for the purpose of improving separation performance. Different additives have been attempted during the interfacial polymerization. In this study, 15-Crown-5 (CE15) was employed as the additive to produce TFC membranes for reverse osmosis. The influences of CE15 on the membrane surface morphology, chemical composition and separation performance were then investigated. By adjusting the CE15 concentration, the optimal membrane demonstrated a significant enhancement in water permeance, which was 117% higher than that of the original TFC membrane while sustaining a comparable salt rejection. Additionally, the effects of introducing Li+ and Na+ in the fabrication of CE15 membranes were explored and found to enhance the performance and long-term stability. Overall, our results indicate the potential for enhancing the separation performance of TFC membranes through the synergistic combination of CE15 with Li+ and Na+, offering a simple way of modifying membranes to achieve a higher efficiency and durability in water purification and other separation processes.

Unveiling the impact of monomer reactivity on the morphology and functionality of thin-film composite membranes

This study delves into the impact of monomer selection and reaction pH on the morphology and performance of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes. The research provides an understanding of how polyamide (PA), polyester amide (PEA), and polyester (PE) membranes can be tailored for specific applications, employing piperazine (PIP) and glucose as monomers in aqueous solution alongside trimesoyl chloride (TMC) as a monomer in an organic solution. PEA-based membranes containing glucose demonstrated several notable improvements, including a reduced contact angle of 60 degrees, a smoother surface, and a more negative zeta potential. These enhancements underscore their increased hydrophilicity, decreased susceptibility to fouling, and heightened surface charge. Controlling pH during fabrication significantly changed the membrane surface charge, hydrophilicity, water flux, and rejection rate. At pH 11, the PA membrane excelled in rejection performance (99.5% Na2SO4, 32% NaCl, and 97.8% methyl orange) with a trade-off in lower water flux (56 LMH). Conversely, the PE membrane achieved the highest water flux (173 LMH) but lower rejection (58% Na2SO4, 10% NaCl, and 97% methyl orange). The PEA membrane offered notable water flux (82.5 LMH) and high rejection for methyl orange (99.3%) and Na2SO4 (99.2%). Increasing the pH reduced permeation rates but enhanced rejection, especially for NaCl. The PE and PEA membranes exhibited remarkable antifouling properties, boasting a flux recovery ratio compared to the PA membrane. This study highlights the pivotal role of monomer selection and pH control in TFC membrane performance, offering prospects for innovative design and optimization in water treatment membrane technology.

Facile fabrication of ceramic-based highly permeable composite nanofiltration membranes by in-situ interfacial polymerization

The preparation of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes with both extraordinary permeance and excellent rejection performance are still a challenge due to the irreversible and rapid interfacial polymerization (IP). The high reactivity of amine monomers helps to form a defect-free membrane instantaneously during the IP process, but also ultimately leads to low water permeance. Here, a facile strategy was proposed to improve the performance of TFC membrane by conducting in-situ IP on the nanoporous ceramic membranes. First, it was confirmed that the hydrophilic ceramic membrane, which serves as an oil-water interface, can provide a uniform aqueous layer. The free-like interface is conductive to the formation of defect less polyamide layer even at ultra-low monomer concentrations and very short reaction times. Then, the performance of TFC membranes using ceramic membranes with different pore sizes as supports was systematically investigated. The result indicates that supports with smaller pore size and narrower distribution enable facilitate the formation of a thinner membrane. Moreover, the nanofiltration membrane exhibited ultra-high pure water permeances of 42.9 LMH/bar and a rejection of 93.4 % to Na2SO4, utilizing a ceramic membrane with a pore size of 10 nm as support under PIP of 0.025 wt% and reaction times of 10 s.

Thin‐Film Composite Membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

AbstractOrganic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is an emerging separation technology. Significant efforts have been dedicated to designing and fabricating thin film composite (TFC) membranes for OSN in recent years. The development and utilization of TFC membranes in OSN are paramount in ensuring the permeability of organic solvent and rejection of solute. Additionally, researchers have delved into optimizing preprocessing and post‐treatment procedures during preparation. The preparation process has emerged as another avenue for improving the separation performance of TFC membranes. Simultaneously, various supports have been explored to enhance the TFC membranes′ performance, including polymer substrates and inorganic substrates, as well as the interlayers between the substrate and the TFC membrane, each with unique advantages and disadvantages, and the choices of support depend on the specific requirements of the intended application. The limitations of conventional membranes could be overcome and thus achieve superior performance via an improved preparation strategy of the TFC membranes. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the preparation process for TFC membranes, including a detailed discussion of the preparation methods, the optimizing processes, and the substrates.

Development of Support Layers and Their Impact on the Performance of Thin Film Composite Membranes (TFC) for Water Treatment.

Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes have gained significant attention as an appealing membrane technology due to their reversible fouling and potential cost-effectiveness. Previous studies have predominantly focused on improving the selective layers to enhance membrane performance. However, the importance of improving the support layers has been increasingly recognized. Therefore, in this review, preparation methods for the support layer, including the traditional phase inversion method and the electrospinning (ES) method, as well as the construction methods for the support layer with a polyamide (PA) layer, are analyzed. Furthermore, the effect of the support layers on the performance of the TFC membrane is presented. This review aims to encourage the exploration of suitable support membranes to enhance the performance of TFC membranes and extend their future applications.

Effects of Porous Supports in Thin-Film Composite Membranes on CO2 Separation Performances

Despite numerous publications on membrane materials and the fabrication of thin-film composite (TFC) membranes for CO2 separation in recent decades, the effects of porous supports on TFC membrane performance have rarely been reported, especially when humid conditions are concerned. In this work, six commonly used porous supports were investigated to study their effects on membrane morphology and the gas transport properties of TFC membranes. Two common membrane materials, Pebax and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), were employed as selective layers to make sample membranes. The fabricated TFC membranes were tested under humid conditions, and the effect of water vapor on gas permeation in the supports was studied. The experiments showed that all membranes exhibited notably different performances under dry or humid conditions. For polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and poly(ether sulfones) (PESF) membranes, the water vapor easily condenses in the pores of these supports, thus sharply increasing the mass transfer resistance. The effect of water vapor is less in the case of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) and polysulfone (PSF), showing better long-term stability. Porous supports significantly contribute to the overall mass transfer resistance. The presence of water vapor worsens the mass transfer in the porous support due to the pore condensation and support material swelling. The membrane fabrication condition must be optimized to avoid pore condensation and maintain good separation performance.

The construction of an efficient magnesium-lithium separation thin film composite membrane with dual aqueous-phase monomers (PIP and MPD).

A series of thin film composite (TFC) membranes was prepared with piperazine (PIP) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD) in different ratios, and the magnesium-lithium separation performance of TFC membranes in salt-lake brine with the magnesium-lithium ratio of 28 were systematically compared. The prepared TFC membranes exhibited high rejection of magnesium ions and negative rejection of lithium ions with high water flux, enabling high magnesium-lithium separation efficiency. The characterisation using FTIR spectroscopy, XPS, zeta potential measurements, and SEM techniques indicated that the composition and surface morphology of the membrane prepared with dual aqueous monomers were found to be different from those prepared with single aqueous monomers under the similar conditions. The interfacial polymerization process of different monomers and the structure-performance mechanism of TFC membranes were further discussed.

Enhanced Separation Performance of Polyamide Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membranes with Interlayer by Constructed Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials: A Critical Review.

Thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) membrane has been widely applied in nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, and forward osmosis, including a PA rejection layer by interfacial polymerization on a porous support layer. However, the separation performance of TFC membrane is constrained by the trade-off relationship between permeability and selectivity. Although thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane can enhance the permeability, due to the existence of functionalized nanoparticles in the PA rejection layer, the introduction of nanoparticles leads to the problems of the poor interface compatibility and the nanoparticles agglomeration. These issues often lead to the defect of PA rejection layers and reduction in selectivity. In this review, we summarize a new class of structures of TFN membranes with functionalized interlayers (TFNi), which promises to overcome the problems associated with TFN membranes. Recently, functionalized two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have received more attention in the assembly materials of membranes. The reported TFNi membranes with 2D interlayers exhibit the remarkable enhancement on the permeability, due to the shorter transport path by the "gutter mechanism" of 2D interlayers. Meanwhile, the functionalized 2D interlayers can affect the diffusion of two-phase monomers during the interfacial polymerization, resulting in the defect-free and highly crosslinked PA rejection layer. Thus, the 2D interlayers enabled TFNi membranes to potentially overcome the longstanding trade-off between membrane permeability and selectivity. This paper provides a critical review on the emerging 2D nanomaterials as the functionalized interlayers of TFNi membranes. The characteristics, function, modification, and advantages of these 2D interlayers are summarized. Several perspectives are provided in terms of the critical challenges for 2D interlayers, managing the trade-off between permeability, selectivity, and cost. The future research directions of TFNi membranes with 2D interlayers are proposed.

Layer-by-layer assembly of alginate/Ca2+ as interlayer on microfiltration substrate: Fabrication of high selective thin-film composite forward osmosis membrane for efficient heavy metal ions removal

Forward osmosis (FO) technology has the merit potential to remove heavy metal ions from wastewater. However, the deficiency of FO membranes with low selectivity and permeability has hampered the scale-up and development of this technology. In this work, we coated a hydrophilic alginate/Ca2+ thin layer through the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly as an interlayer on polyethersulfone (PES) microfiltration (MF) substrate to enhance the separation performance of the thin-film composite (TFC) membrane. The interlayer thickness was controlled by the LbL cycles (1–7 cycles), and its effect on surface properties of substrates in terms of hydrophilicity and pore size was investigated thoroughly. Then the influence of interlayer LbL cycles on the polyamide (PA) synthesis through interfacial reaction was studied. Results show that the interlayer prevents the PA layer's intrusion into the substrate pores and provides a hydrophilic and smooth surface to synthesize a defect-free PA layer. SEM images show that a dense, uniform, and defect-free PA rejection layer was formed on interlayer-coated MF substrates. FO performance result also verified the positive effect of interlayer on TFC membrane performance, where TFC-LbL.5 membrane (with 5 LbL cycles of alginate/Ca2+) showed 2 times higher water flux than control TFC membrane (23.3 LMH compared to 9.2 LMH). In the TFC-LbL.5 membrane, the defect-free PA active layer formed on the alginate/Ca2+ interlayer acted as a favorable barrier for different heavy metal ions (Cr3+, Co2+, and Hg2+) with the rejection of more than 99% under FO mode. This work offers a novel opportunity for the practical construction and development of high-efficiency TFC-FO membranes for heavy metal removal applications.

Distinct impact of substrate hydrophilicity on performance and structure of TFC NF and RO polyamide membranes

Substrate properties have profound impacts on the structure and performance of both thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) polyamide (PA) membranes. Some studies have previously investigated the impact of substrate hydrophilicity on PA formation and TFC membrane performance. However, the observed phenomena and explanations remain contradictory in literature. Herein, we performed interfacial polymerization (IP) reactions of both piperazine (PIP)-trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD)-TMC systems on substrates with different hydrophilicity. We found that the TFC RO membrane showed higher water permeance and NaCl rejection on the relatively hydrophobic substrate, while the TFC NF membrane favored the relatively hydrophilic substrate. The critical importance of interfacial degassing and local monomer concentration was highlighted to dissect the distinct impact of substrate hydrophilicity. For the MPD-TMC system, interfacial nanobubble generation was inhibited because of the decreased local MPD concentration and heat production for the more hydrophilic substrates, resulting in a decrease in the roughness feature and compromised water permeance of RO membranes. In contrast, interfacial degassing was not a dominant mechanism in the PIP-TMC system due to the slower reaction rate of PIP-TMC than MPD-TMC. Consequently, the PA layer of NF membrane became thinner and looser when the substrate became more hydrophilic, resulting from the diluted local PIP concentration. Our study unveils the fundamental relationship among substrate hydrophilicity, PA structure, and separation performance of both TFC NF and RO PA membranes, providing important guides on their design and synthesis.

Thermo-Responsive Hydrophilic Support for Polyamide Thin-Film Composite Membranes with Competitive Nanofiltration Performance.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) was introduced into a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nonwoven fabric to develop novel support for polyamide (PA) thin-film composite (TFC) membranes without using a microporous support layer. First, temperature-responsive PNIPAAm hydrogel was prepared by reactive pore-filling to adjust the pore size of non-woven fabric, creating hydrophilic support. The developed PET-based support was then used to fabricate PA TFC membranes via interfacial polymerization. SEM–EDX and AFM results confirmed the successful fabrication of hydrogel-integrated non-woven fabric and PA TFC membranes. The newly developed PA TFC membrane demonstrated an average water permeability of 1 L/m2 h bar, and an NaCl rejection of 47.0% at a low operating pressure of 1 bar. The thermo-responsive property of the prepared membrane was studied by measuring the water contact angle (WCA) below and above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the PNIPAAm hydrogel. Results proved the thermo-responsive behavior of the prepared hydrogel-filled PET-supported PA TFC membrane and the ability to tune the membrane flux by changing the operating temperature was confirmed. Overall, this study provides a novel method to fabricate TFC membranes and helps to better understand the influence of the support layer on the separation performance of TFC membranes.

Integration of thin film composite graphene oxide membranes for solvent resistant nanofiltration

Solvent resistance of graphene oxide (GO) makes it a promising material to construct membranes for precise separations with solvent-involved conditions. A thin GO laminate layer supported by a porous substrate displaying a thin film composite (TFC) membrane configuration is commonly employed, and integration of the composite structure is necessary to acquire desirable performance. While the substrate effects on solvent transport in supported laminates were rarely involved, here we prepared integrated GO laminates using diamine crosslinking as a precondition and then investigated the effects of supporting substrates with different porous structure properties on TFC membrane performance. It was found that even if the laminates were integrated with similarly stable interlayer spacing in solvents, the substrate played a key role in forming GO laminates with desirable molecular rejection properties in solvents. The dye molecule rejection performance of the TFC GO membrane was significantly changed from 3% to 92% by optimizing the supporting substrate with limited surface porosity and pore size. Additionally, the altered stacking and channel formation of the GO nanosheets by the substrate exhibited solvent permeation following different transport models. This study may provide considerations in designing functional GO membranes for solvent resistant filtrations with an emphasis on substrate optimization.

Modification Mechanism of Polyamide Reverse Osmosis Membrane by Persulfate: Roles of Hydroxyl and Sulfate Radicals.

Oxidative modification is a facile method to improve the desalination performance of thin-film composite membranes. In this study, we comparatively investigated the modification mechanisms induced by sulfate radical (SO4• -) and hydroxyl radical (HO•) for polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membrane. The SO4• -- and HO•-based membrane modifications were manipulated by simply adjusting the pH of the thermal-activated persulfate solution. Although both of them improved the water permeability of the RO membrane under certain conditions, the SO4• --modified membrane notably prevailed over the HO•-modified one due to higher permeability, more consistent salt rejection rates over wide pH and salinity ranges, and better stability when exposed to high doses of chlorine. The differences of the membranes modified by the two radical species probably can be related to their distinct surface properties in terms of morphology, hydrophilicity, surface charge, and chemical composition. Further identification of the transformation products of a model polyamide monomer using high-resolution mass spectrometry demonstrated that SO4• - initiated polymerization reactions and produced hydroquinone/benzoquinone and polyaromatic structures; whereas the amide group of the monomer was degraded by HO•, generating hydroxyl, carboxyl, and nitro groups. The results will enlighten effective ways for practical modification of polyamide RO membranes to improve desalination performances and the development of sustainable oxidation-combined membrane processes.

Vacuum-Assisted Interfacial Polymerization Technique for Enhanced Pervaporation Separation Performance of Thin-Film Composite Membranes.

In this work, thin-film composite polyamide membranes were fabricated using triethylenetetramine (TETA) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) following the vacuum-assisted interfacial polymerization (VAIP) method for the pervaporation (PV) dehydration of aqueous isopropanol (IPA) solution. The physical and chemical properties as well as separation performance of the TFCVAIP membranes were compared with the membrane prepared using the traditional interfacial polymerization (TIP) technique (TFCTIP). Characterization results showed that the TFCVAIP membrane had a higher crosslinking degree, higher surface roughness, and denser structure than the TFCTIP membrane. As a result, the TFCVAIP membrane exhibited a higher separation performance in 70 wt.% aqueous IPA solution at 25 °C with permeation flux of 1504 ± 169 g∙m−2∙h−1, water concentration in permeate of 99.26 ± 0.53 wt%, and separation factor of 314 (five times higher than TFCTIP). Moreover, the optimization of IP parameters, such as variation of TETA and TMC concentrations as well as polymerization time for the TFCVAIP membrane, was carried out. The optimum condition in fabricating the TFCVAIP membrane was 0.05 wt.% TETA, 0.1 wt% TMC, and 60 s polymerization time.

Development of dynamic PVA/PAN membranes for pervaporation: Correlation between kinetics of gel layer formation, preparation conditions, and separation performance

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes possessing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) selective layer and polyacrylonitrile membrane-support were developed via dynamic mode technique based on concentration polarization phenomenon. The effect of the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of membrane-support, concentration of PVA solution and filtration mode on the gel layer formation was studied via the analysis of kinetic curves of flux and PVA rejection in ultrafiltration. The effects of concentrations of PVA, glutaraldehyde (GA) and hydrochloric acid (HA), filtration time, and transmembrane pressure (TMP) on the structure and pervaporation (PV) performance of TFC membranes for ethanol dehydration were investigated. It was found that an increase in PVA concentration, duration of filtration and TMP results in an increase in the TFC membrane selective layer thickness. It was shown that pervaporation permeate flux decreased when TFC membranes were prepared using higher PVA concentration and longer time of PVA filtration. The pervaporative permeate flux through TFC membranes passed through the maximum at TMP of 3 bar, then became practically stable for membranes prepared at TMP in the range of 4-8 bar. It was attributed to the formation of microdefects of the selective layer due to the compaction-relaxation behavior of membrane support during selective layer formation at elevated pressures. It was also shown that the dependence of PV separation factor on the duration of PVA solution filtration passes through the maximum which is consistent with the time of the stable gel-layer formation calculated from the kinetic curves. The found optimal conditions for preparation of TFC dynamic membranes were following: dead-end ultrafiltration mode, the component concentrations in the solution — 1.0 wt.% PVA, 0.06 wt.% GA, 0.5 wt.% HA, using the simultaneous application technique (SimAT) with the filtration time — 10 min and TMP — 3 bar.

Transport mechanisms and desalination performance of the PSF/UiO-66 thin-film composite membrane: a molecular dynamics study

ABSTRACT A novel non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) model was presented to investigate the transport mechanisms and desalination performance of thin-film composite membranes (TFC). Firstly, polyamide (PA) and polysulfone (PSF), or PSF/UiO-66 models, were constructed as active and support layers. Subsequently, feed solution and draw solutions with 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 M salt concentrations were generated. Thirdly, these aqueous and membranes were combined to build forward osmosis (FO) models. The FO process was simulated to anatomise the membrane fouling, water flux, and salt rejection, which JAVA and MD programs were combined to calculate. The results indicated that the PA-PSF/UiO-66 membrane exhibited a stable water transport and salt rejection performance compared to the pristine PA and PA-PSF membranes. Finally, experiments and simulations were compared, and the same trends were found. Therefore, this simulation work provided significant insight in guiding the design and synthesis of the FO membrane.

The role of support layer properties on the fabrication and performance of thin-film composite membranes: The significance of selective layer-support layer connectivity

• Progress on the optimization of TFC membranes performance has been relatively slow. • The effect of support layer properties on the formation of a selective layer in TFC is discussed. • The inconsistencies in the literature of TFC fabrication are highlighted. Membrane-based separation processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO), and nanofiltration (NF) are the key technologies for the desalination of brackish and seawater. Along these lines, the thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, prepared via interfacial polymerization (IP), are the predominant choice of the separator; nonetheless, the progress with the optimization of their performance has been fairly slow. This slow progress has been mainly associated with the large number of the parameters influencing IP and the need to control thin-film properties at a miniature length scale, where the trade-off between transport rate and selectivity defines the separation performance. Despite the continuous efforts and progresses made, the role of interfacial, physicochemical, and structural properties of the supports layer on the selective layer fabrication and overally the TFC membranes performance is not a well-attended topic. In this short perspective, we outline the efforts and directions that have been explored and provide insights into this aspect of membrane fabrication. We highlight the significance of selective layer-support layer connectivity on the properties of TFC membranes. Given the challenges associated with separation efficiency, insights on how to adjust the transport properties of TFC membranes are critical to the design, fabrication, and development of future water purification processes.

Enhancing water permeability and antifouling performance of thin–film composite membrane by tailoring the support layer

The properties of support layers are critical for the desalination performance of thin–film composite (TFC) membranes. For instance, surface characteristics of the support layers significantly impact the formed polyamide (PA) rejection layer by interfacial polymerization, thereby affecting the water transport and fouling behaviors of the TFC desalination membranes. In this work, the relationship between the support layer's properties and final separation and antifouling properties of TFC membranes was comprehensively investigated. A sulfonated polysulfone (sPSf) polymer was utilized to control the properties of the polysulfone (PSf) support layers. The sPSf modified support layer (PSf–X series) exhibited enhanced surface hydrophilicity, smaller surface pores, larger overall porosity, and higher water flux compared with the pristine PSf support layer. After interfacial polymerization on the PSf–X series support layers, the TFC–X series membranes showed enhanced hydrophilicity, smoother surfaces, enhanced water permeability and antifouling performance without major loss of NaCl rejection. Meanwhile, the forward osmosis (FO) desalination performance of TFC–X series was significantly improved due to the enhanced water permeability and reduced internal concentration polarization associated with the more porous support layer. A computational fluid dynamic model based on the finite element method was also developed to fit the forward water and reverse salt fluxes to the experimental results. The prepared TFC membrane containing sPSf in the support layer displayed improved water permeability and antifouling performance in FO applications. This work explores the relationship between the support layer properties and the separation performance of TFC membranes. It provides an effective strategy to enhance the water permeability and antifouling of TFC membranes by tailoring the support layers.

Understanding the role of substrates on thin film composite membranes: A green solvent approach with TamiSolve® NxG

The application of thin film composite (TFC) has emerged in aqueous and organic solvent-based membrane separation. However, the fabrication of TFC membrane requires abundant toxic and hazardous solvents, resulting in a process that is not completely green. For the first time, we report here using TamiSolve® NxG as a green solvent for the preparation of polyethersulfone (PESU) TFC membranes via nonsolvent induced phase separation. The feasibility study of using TamiSolve® NxG as a solvent for PESU membrane fabrication was evaluated by Hansen solubility parameters, ternary phase diagram, physical properties and toxicity. Besides, the impact of substrates on the separation performance of TFC membranes was investigated from the aspects of the morphology, thickness, porosity, pore size, hydrophilicity and pure water permeability (PWP). The substrates with different pore sizes were prepared while the TFC membranes demonstrated a promising separation performance with PWP and NaCl rejections of 0.64–3.54 LMH/bar and 91.4 %–94.1%, respectively. It was found that the pore size and hydrophilicity of the substrates play key roles in determining the surface morphology of TFC, which influences PWP. The fundamentals gained from this study may facilitate the development of TFC membranes using green solvents towards a sustainable membrane fabrication process.