Thin Film Nanocomposite Membranes Research Articles

Mussel-inspired modification of 2D MoS2 to construct a hybrid nanocomposite membrane with enhanced pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol

In this work, a thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane was constructed using a hybrid polydopamine (PD)-MoS2 (MoS2@PD) filler for pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol. The exfoliated MoS2 was first modified through bio-inspired coating of PD. The resulting MoS2@PD with different weight ratio with respect to PEI was then deposited into the hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile support through pressure-assisted filtration, followed by crosslinking with trimesoyl chloride. Characterization experiments were performed with the membranes using Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, and water contact angle analyses. The PD serves as a bridging agent between MoS2 and the crosslinked PEI, enhancing the membrane’s physicochemical properties, including surface morphology and hydrophilicity. For membrane performance on pervaporation dehydration of 70/30 wt% isopropanol/water mixture at 25 °C, the addition of MoS2@PD led to a simultaneous increase in permeation total flux and water content in the permeate. Notably, MoS2@PD0.3-TFN membrane demonstrated a permeation flux of 2870.10 g∙m−2∙h−1 and 0.86/99.14 wt% isopropanol/water permeate mixture. The membrane also maintained stable performance under varying feed concentration, feed temperature, and long-term operations. This study contributes valuable insights into the development of MoS2-based membrane with enhanced pervaporation separation performance.

Environmental sustainability of FO membrane separation applications – Bibliometric analysis and state-of-the-art review

Water treatment, product concentration, and resource recovery are few examples of the many areas where the economic promise of osmotic driven membrane separation remains unrealized. The most futuristic and sustainable, osmotic driven membrane separation process which works with-out any external hydraulic energy is forward osmosis (FO) process. This study comprises two parts first is of bibliometric analysis which helps to identify and analyze the current research trend in osmotic membrane filtration technique, and are represented along with nodal network visualization. Desalination and wastewater treatment seem to be the major application of FO technology followed by fertigation, algal dewatering, pharmaceutical and textile industries. The second part is the literature review on major applications of forward osmotic technique shortlisted from bibliometric analysis, which includes recent developments in FO research. An application based critical analysis on thin film nano composite membrane, draw solutes, nano particles for membrane modifications and hybrid FO units were performed. Analysing literatures from 2005 to 2022, this study pinpoints potential applications, future prospects and existing challenges in Forward Osmosis (FO), for the successful implementation of scale-up.

PolyMOF nanoparticles constructed from intrinsically microporous polymer ligand towards scalable composite membranes for CO2 separation

Integrating different modification strategies into a single step to achieve the desired properties of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) has been very synthetically challenging, especially in developing advanced MOF/polymer mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). Herein, we report a polymer–MOF (polyMOF) system constructed from a carboxylated polymer with intrinsic microporosity (cPIM-1) ligand. This intrinsically microporous ligand could coordinate with metals, leading to ~100 nm-sized polyMOF nanoparticles. Compared to control MOFs, these polyMOFs exhibit enhanced ultramicroporosity for efficient molecular sieving, and they have better dispersion properties in casting solutions to prepare MMMs. Ultimately, integrating coordination chemistries through the cPIM-1 and polymer-based functionality into porous materials results in polyMOF/PIM-1 MMMs that display excellent CO2 separation performance (surpassing the CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 upper bounds). In addition to exploring the physicochemical and transport properties of this polyMOF system, scalability has been demonstrated by converting the developed MMM material into large-area (400 cm2) thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes.

UiO-66-NH2 modified thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for selective separation of Li+/Co2+ in a flow electrode capacitive deionization system

As key metal elements in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the recovery of lithium (Li) and cobalt (Co) showed both economic and environmental benefits. In this study, a thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane with high selectivity was fabricated based on nanoscale UiO-66-NH2 particles, and the modified membranes were applied in the flow-electrode capacitive deionization device (FCDI) for the separation of monovalent and divalent cations. UiO-66-NH2 provided hydrophilic water channels and increased the permeability of Li+. TFN exhibited a rejection rate of Co2+ over 95%, and the separation factor of Li+/Co2+ was 27.44 during the operation of 150 min in FCDI with the addition of 10 mg UiO-66-NH2, which was about 1.52 times greater than that of the commercial cation-selective membrane (CSO). The size repulsion effect caused by size difference between hydrated ions and membrane pores and Donnan electrostatic repulsion force generated by positively charged membranes were evaluated to be the main basis for the ion separation of prepared membranes. The novel system using TFN membrane in FCDI had a better ability to resist Co2+ fouling and a good Li+/Co2+ separation effect. We believe these modified membranes have promising potential for the selective separation of heavy metal ions and the recycling of metal resources.

Thin film nanocomposite nanofiltration with tannic acid-Fe(III) complexes functionalized Ti3C2Tx for enhanced divalent-salinity-water separation with a superior durability

Incorporating nanomaterials for a thin film nanocomposite (TFN) layer has been verified effective to improve the separation performance of nanofiltration (NF) membranes, whereas the poor compatibility between nanomaterials and polyamide (PA) matrix leads to a decrease in the salt rejection and pollution resistance. In this study, inspired by a new interface-bridging idea, Ti3C2Tx was bonded with tannic acid-Fe(III) (TA-Fe(III)) complexes, and then incorporated into a PA matrix for the first time to obtain a novel TFN NF membrane. The introduction of TA-Ti3C2Tx was found to effectively reduce the diffusion of piperazine, and thus result in the induction of a thinner, lower roughness, more hydrophilic, and defect-free PA layer. With the addition of 0.015 wt% TA-Ti3C2Tx, the TFN membrane obtained the highest water permeability of 12.17 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, almost twice that of the pristine membrane, with a high Na2SO4 rejection above 97 %. In addition, the TA-Ti3C2Tx-filled TFN membranes were verified to exhibit excellent antifouling performance and pressure resistance with a high durability, which is crucial for the practical application in salinity water treatment. This study provides an effective strategy to tailor the interfacial microstructural of nanoparticle-filled NF membranes for superior divalent-salinity-water separation.

Development of an improved deep network model as a general technique for thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane simulation

Due to the complexity of the inherent trade-off between water permeability and salt rejection in thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membranes (TFN-ROMs), conventional methods have not performed satisfactorily in predicting the performance of TFN-ROMs. In this study, to address the limitations of traditional machine learning in predicting the performance of TFN-ROMs, we developed a three-component residual artificial neural network (R-TNN) and learned from membrane properties, nanoparticle properties, and membrane performance to capture the complex trade-off between water permeability and salt rejection of TFN-ROMs. The coefficients of determination of the trained R-TNN model for relative salt passage (RSP) and relative water permeability (RWP) of TFN-ROMs were 0.910 ± 0.028 and 0.739 ± 0.028, respectively, which showed good performance compared to fully-connected neural network and conventional machine learning models even with small sample data. Meanwhile, subsequent ablation experiments conducted verified that the improvement of the R-TNN model is practical and effective. In addition, we conducted data scale experiments, which showed that the R-TNN model has the potential to become a generalized technical framework for the initial informationization era and the future big data era. Subsequently, we employed the partial dependence plot to mechanistically interpret the model. Specifically, we observed a positive correlation between nanoparticle size and both RWP and RSP, while the loading of nanoparticles initially promoted and later inhibited these performances. The validated R-TNN model can better learn the inherent trade-off between salt rejection and water permeability of TFN-ROMs, which implies that this study can provide decision support for the fabrication of membranes with more outstanding performances, which greatly contributes to the promising applications of TFN-ROMs.

Tailorable metal–organic framework based thin film nanocomposite membrane for lithium recovery from wasted batteries

This paper presents a tailorable method for the preparation of hierarchically structured membranes for efficient lithium recovery. Firstly, a metal–organic framework (MOF), namely MIL-101 (Cr), is grafted with different ionic liquids (ILs) onto its coordinate unsaturated site (CUS). The modified MOF (IL-MOF) is then used as nanoparticles to fabricate the flexible hydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) based thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane. Secondly, comprehensive characterizations of both the nanoparticle and the IL-MOF based TFN membrane are carried out. Thirdly, lithium recovery is performed experimentally using simulated lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) leaching solution with the as-synthesized membrane. The first order ageing test of TFN membrane is conducted by MOF detachment tendency investigation and ILs leaching tendency evaluation. The results show that IL-MOF nanoparticles have a significant effect on lithium recovery. Compared with the original membrane, the IL-MOF-TFN membrane exhibits a fourfold lithium selectivity enhancement for SLi+,Mn2+ (from 1.73 to 8.91), SLi+,Co2+ (from 1.75 to 9.94) and SLi+,Ni2+ (from 1.69 to 10.09), as well as improved regeneration behavior, permeability (up to 45.0 L/(m2·h·bar)) and antifouling performance (flux recovery rate FRR up to 96.39 %). It is found that 98.9 % of the lithium was recovered from the feed solution over five repeated filtration cycles with maintained membrane integrity. This work highlights the advances in the design, modification and integration of MOFs into mechanically and chemically stable membrane technology for lithium recovery.

Preparation of ‘Extended Range’ thin-film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane with excellent permeability and selectivity

Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane possesses great potential in breaking through the ‘trade-off’ effect, in which nanomaterials are incorporated in the polyamide layer to improve the membrane structure as well as provide extra lower-resistance water channel. However, the aggregation of nanoparticles under high loading concentration always induces decline of salt rejection though higher water flux can be achieved. Inspired by the concept of ‘Extended Range Electric Vehicles’, 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) liposomes were selected as the extended range materials to make up the defects of TFN membranes that excess palygorskite (Pal) brought in present study. The results showed that 1.3 mg/ml loading concentration of Pal led to dramatic decline of NaCl rejection from 99.3 % to 96.8 % though 63.1 % flux enhancement achieved compared to thin-film composite (TFC) membranes. Incorporation of 0.008 mg/ml DOPC liposomes brought further 55.5 % flux enhancement compared to TFN-Pal1.3 membrane and total 153.6 % increment compared to TFC membranes (1.98 → 5.02 L/m2·h·bar). Most importantly, the NaCl rejection of TFN-Pal1.3-DOPC0.008 membranes reverted to 99.1 % and the flux recovery rate increased to 92 %. This study provides novel method for increasing the loading concentration of nanoparticles in the selective layer combined with better dispersion, and demonstrates the feasibility of the concept of ‘Extended Range’ TFN reverse osmosis (RO) membrane.

High Gas Permeability in Aged Superglassy Membranes with Nanosized UiO‐66−NH2/cPIM‐1 Network Fillers

AbstractSuperglassy membranes synthesised by polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) suffer from physical aging and show poor gas permeance over time, especially thin membranes, due to the fast rearrangement of nonequilibrium polymer chains. Herein, we constructed a novel PIM‐1 thin film nanocomposite membrane (TFN) using nanosized UiO‐66−NH2 (≈10 nm)/carboxylated PIM‐1 (cPIM‐1) as the composite filler. Unlike conventional fillers, which interact with the polymer only via the surface, the UiO‐66−NH2/cPIM‐1 forms a stable three‐dimensional (3D) network intertwining with the polymer chains, being very effective to impede chain relaxation, and thus physical aging. Nanosizing of UiO‐66−NH2 was achieved by regulating the nucleation kinetics using carbon quantum dots (CQD) during the synthesis. This led to increased surface area, and hence more functional groups to bond with cPIM‐1 (via hydrogen bonding between −NH2 and −COOH groups), which also improved interfacial compatibility between the 3D network and polymer chains avoiding defect formation. As a result, the novel TFN showed significantly improved performance in gas separation along with reduced aging (i.e. ≈6 % loss in CO2 permeability over 63 days); the aged membranes had a CO2 permeance of 2504 GPU and ideal selectivity values of 37.2 and 23.8 for CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4, respectively.

High Gas Permeability in Aged Superglassy Membranes with Nanosized UiO-66-NH2 /cPIM-1 Network Fillers.

Superglassy membranes synthesised by polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) suffer from physical aging and show poor gas permeance over time, especially thin membranes, due to the fast rearrangement of nonequilibrium polymer chains. Herein, we constructed a novel PIM-1 thin film nanocomposite membrane (TFN) using nanosized UiO-66-NH2 (≈10 nm)/carboxylated PIM-1 (cPIM-1) as the composite filler. Unlike conventional fillers, which interact with the polymer only via the surface, the UiO-66-NH2 /cPIM-1 forms a stable three-dimensional (3D) network intertwining with the polymer chains, being very effective to impede chain relaxation, and thus physical aging. Nanosizing of UiO-66-NH2 was achieved by regulating the nucleation kinetics using carbon quantum dots (CQD) during the synthesis. This led to increased surface area, and hence more functional groups to bond with cPIM-1 (via hydrogen bonding between -NH2 and -COOH groups), which also improved interfacial compatibility between the 3D network and polymer chains avoiding defect formation. As a result, the novel TFN showed significantly improved performance in gas separation along with reduced aging (i.e. ≈6 % loss in CO2 permeability over 63 days); the aged membranes had a CO2 permeance of 2504 GPU and ideal selectivity values of 37.2 and 23.8 for CO2 /N2 and CO2 /CH4 , respectively.

In‐situ generated ZnO nanoparticles for enhanced performance of thin film nanocomposite membrane in forward osmosis process

AbstractThis work developed a novel approach to the in‐situ synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles to modify the polysulfone (PSf) porous membrane substrate. The zinc acetate was added to the casting solution, and ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized during phase inversion. The non‐solvent pH and zinc acetate concentration controlled the ZnO synthesis and loading. Their effect on the substrates properties in terms of morphology, hydrophilicity and porosity was studied thoroughly. The result shows that the ZnO nanoparticles was not formed in acidic pH, while ZnO nanoparticles with size of 20 nm could be easily formed in basic pH. The successful synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles was investigated using FTIR and EDX analysis. The EDX images verify that in‐situ synthesis led to a more uniform dispersion than conventional incorporation method. Then the effect of ZnO loading on the interfacial reaction and polyamide (PA) structure was investigated. SEM images verify the successful synthesis of a uniform and defect‐free PA thin film on ZnO modified substrates. FO performance results show an enhancement in water flux and salt rejection as a result of ZnO incorporation in thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes, where TFN 1 wt.% in‐situ membrane showed 40% higher water flux than the control TFC membrane. The porous and hydrophile substrate in TFN 1 wt.% in‐situ membrane is responsible for improved separation performance. These modified membranes displayed uniform dispersion of ZnO nanoparticles within substrates, confirming that this method could effectively restrain the aggregation of the nanoparticles.

The role of microporous metal–organic frameworks in thin-film nanocomposite membranes for nanofiltration

Endowed with amendable pore apertures and chemistries as well as customized topologies, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have displayed a promise to improve the separation efficacy of thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes. In this study, the microporous MOF-801 nanoparticles (NPs) with robust water stability were synthesized using a green synthesis approach at room temperature. Subsequently, the MOF-801 NPs were positioned atop the polysulfone (PSf) membrane support via vacuum-assisted filtration, followed by interfacial polymerization to construct TFN membranes. A wide array of characterizations was conducted to analyze the physicochemical properties and morphological characteristics of the MOF-801 and the modified polyamide (PA) membranes. Results revealed the successful synthesis of MOF-801 nanocrystals with abundant micropores and a high crystallinity. The incorporation of MOF-801 NPs to the PA layer was found to induce substantial improvements in surface hydrophilicity and roughness as well as thinner PA layers, which are favorable for rapid water molecule transport. The water permeability of TFN membranes presented a notable 98% increment compared to the thin-film composite (TFC) membrane with only a small compromise for salt rejection. This work underscores the promising potential of nanoporous and acid-base stable MOF-801 as an efficient nanofiller for constructing nanofiltration membranes with admirable performance.

(3-Aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane-Functionalized Titanium Dioxide Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membrane: Enhanced Rejection Performance for Unary and Binary High-Salt Wastewater

(3-Aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane-Functionalized Titanium Dioxide Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membrane: Enhanced Rejection Performance for Unary and Binary High-Salt Wastewater

Design of thin-film nanocomposite membranes via synchronizing interfacial coordination and polymerization reactions for organic solvent nanofiltration

Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes have received immense research interest due to their high permeability and high selectivity in organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). Herein, TFN membranes were fabricated by synchronizing interfacial coordination and polymerization reactions occurring at an ionic liquid/water interface. The one-pot interfacial reactions led to the simultaneous formation of Fe-MeIm nanofillers and polyamide thin layers with uniform dispersion and good compatibility. The resultant ternary membranes were denoted as Fe-MeIm/PA/PMIA, wherein the Fe-MeIm nanofillers were well-encapsulated in the ultrathin PA selective layer and both of them were located on top of the solvent-resistant PMIA substrate. The morphologies, microstructure, physicochemical properties, and OSN performance of the resultant TFN and traditional TFC membranes were systematically studied and compared. Moreover, the effects of the concentrations and ratios of reagents during the one-pot interfacial reactions were also elucidated. The optimal TFN membrane showed 5 times higher permeance than the TFC membrane without nanofillers while maintaining a high rejection for Congo red/ethanol separation. Moreover, it also showed good stability in various solvents and long-term stability and remarkably improved mechanical properties. This work provides a novel and time-saving fabrication strategy for TFN membranes for OSN application.

In Situ Interfacial Polymerized Arginine-Doped Polydopamine Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membranes for High-Separation and Antifouling Reverse Osmosis.

In this work, we synthesized polydopamine nanoparticles (PDNPs-M, M = I, II, III, and IV) with uniform particle sizes but varying l-arginine (Arg) contents (0%, 0.53%, 3.73%, and 6.62%) through a one-pot synthesis approach. Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were fabricated via in situ interfacial polymerization (IP). The effects of the PDNPs-M chemical structure on the IP process and the consequent impacts on the structure and properties of the polyamide (PA) selective layer were investigated. The hydrophilicity and dispersibility of PDNPs-M exhibited an upward trend with the Arg content. Furthermore, Arg doping contributes to a denser and smoother PA layer. Among the TFC and TFN membranes, TFN-PDNPs-IV exhibited a water permeability of 3.89 L·m-2·h-1·bar-1 (55.1% higher than that of TFC-0) with a NaCl rejection rate of 98.8%, signifying superior water/salt selectivity. Additionally, TFN-PDNPs-IV exhibited regular pressure stability, commendable acid/alkali stability, and enhanced antifouling properties. These findings highlight the significant impact of nanoparticle hydrophilic functional groups on the structural and functional attributes of TFN membranes, offering a promising approach for developing advanced reverse osmosis membranes.

High perm-selectivity and performance of tuned nanofiltration membranes by merging carbon nitride derivatives as interphase layer for efficient water treatment

The support characteristics under polyamide thin films have proven significant impact on the performance of nanofiltration thin film composite (TFC) membranes. In this study, polyethersulphone (PES) support was initially furnished with an interphase layer of different graphitic carbon nitride derivatives and nanocomposites (g-C3N4, oxidized g-C3N4, and g-C3N4/CuFe2O4) to improve the specifications of TFC membranes. Then, the polyamide layer was fabricated by interfacial polymerization on top of the interphase layer. The interlayer helped fine-tune the thickness and surface characteristics such as roughness, wettability, and zeta potential of the polyamide layer, in the way of improving the separation and antifouling capabilities of the TFC membranes. The interlayered thin film nanocomposite (ITFN) membranes considerably indicated better water permeability and rejection of methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), Cadmium nitrate, and sodium sulfate (Na2SO4). We showed that ITFNs loaded with 0.01 wt% g-C3N4/CuFe2O4 had a permeability of ~9.2 LMH/bar, upper from ~3.8 LMH/bar in the pristine form, exhibiting outstanding water flux. The rejection data showed nearly two-fold increase of rejection of Cadmium nitrate, sodium sulfate, and dyes rather than the pristine nanofiltration membrane. The modified nanofiltration membranes remarkably exhibited better antifouling properties and higher flux recovery ratios as well.

NH4HCO3 as additive for fabrication of thin film nanocomposite membrane with enhanced permeability

NH4HCO3 as additive for fabrication of thin film nanocomposite membrane with enhanced permeability

Forward osmosis TFN membrane prepared by adjusting a PDA/GO-Fe3+-TA interlayer on porous CTA substrates

Cellulose triacetate (CTA) is commonly used as the material for forward osmosis (FO) membranes due to its good chlorine resistance, fouling resistance and wide availability. In this work, the implications of various solvents on the appearance and desalination capacity of CTA FO membranes were systematically investigated. CTA membranes with large pore size and high porosity were constructed by using spray-modified non-solvent induced phase separation (s-NIPS). The water flux of CTA membranes fabricated by s-NIPS using DMSO as the solvent was up to 34.4 L m−2h−1, which was 5.6 times higher than HTI commercial membranes, and the reverse salt flux was only 10.9 g m−2h−1. A poly-dopamine (PDA) /graphene oxide (GO) -Fe3+-tannic acid (TA) interlayer was introduced to adjust the cross-linking degree of the polyamide (PA). And thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes (PA-PDA/GO-Fe3+-TA-CTA) were fabricated successfully. The water flux was 35.8 L m−2h−1 and the reverse salt flux decreased to 5.84 g m−2h−1. These experimental results propose an emerging approach to design and develop high performance FO membranes in a rational way.

Thin film nanocomposite membranes fabricated via 2D ZIF-67 nanosheets and 1D nanofibers with ultrahigh water flux for dye removal from wastewater

Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes based on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have received increasing attention in the field of water treatment. However, TFN membranes with both high permeance and rejection rates are highly desired. In this study, ultra-thin ZIF-67 was synthesized and TFN membranes were fabricated by combining the obtained 2D ZIF-67 with cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The nanofibers not only fill the gaps between the ZIF-67 nanosheets but also form an intercalation layer between the ZIF-67 nanosheets and function as a water transport pathway, leading to a significant enhancement of water permeance. By introducing CNF into the ZIF-67-embedded matrix, the dye rejection rates increase to 96.8 % and 93.3 %, respectively, with water permeance of about 90.0 L⋅m−2⋅h−1⋅bar−1. Further introducing CNT into the CNF/ZIF-67 membrane further improved the water permeance to 207.8 L⋅m−2⋅h−1⋅bar−1, while a dye rejection rate of 95.1 % was documented. The results indicate that the introduction of nanofibers into 2D MOF matrix to form TFN membranes has great potential for wastewater treatment.

Polyethylene glycol-grafted graphene oxide nanosheets in tailoring the structure and reverse osmosis performance of thin film composite membrane

Introducing hydrophilic polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) within the polyamide (PA) layer of thin film composite (TFC) membranes helps achieve high water desalination performance. Here, PEGs of different molecular weights (X: 1500, 6000, 16,000 g/mol) are effectively introduced into the PA layer of TFC membranes utilizing PEG-grafted graphene oxide (GOPX) nanosheets and their effects on the physicochemical properties and reverse osmosis (RO) performance of the thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes are investigated. Among the TFNs prepared the GOP16000/TFN exhibits the best performance with 68% improvement in water flux and almost constant salt rejection compared to those of the bare TFC. The influence of PEG molecular weight on the RO performance of the membranes is interpreted by different surface and bulk hydrophilicity as well as thickness and surface roughness of PA layers of GOPX/TFNs. Furthermore, TFNs with thinner and smoother PA layers and thus higher water flux are obtained by dispersing GOPXs in the aqueous phase of the PA interfacial polymerization reaction than by dispersing them in the organic phase of the reaction. Finally, the high antifouling potential of TFNs containing PEG-grafted GOs is demonstrated.