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Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process

Internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ properties has been one of the most effective method...

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Autores principales: Low, Ze-Xian, Liu, Qi, Shamsaei, Ezzatollah, Zhang, Xiwang, Wang, Huanting
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4384095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25803239
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes5010136
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author Low, Ze-Xian
Liu, Qi
Shamsaei, Ezzatollah
Zhang, Xiwang
Wang, Huanting
author_facet Low, Ze-Xian
Liu, Qi
Shamsaei, Ezzatollah
Zhang, Xiwang
Wang, Huanting
author_sort Low, Ze-Xian
collection PubMed
description Internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ properties has been one of the most effective methods. A new polyethersulfone-based ultrafiltration membrane with increased surface porosity and high water flux was recently produced by incorporating Zn(2)GeO(4) nanowires. The composite membrane was used as a substrate for the fabrication of TFC FO membrane, by coating a thin layer of polyamide on top of the substrate. The substrate and the nanowires were characterized by a range of techniques such as SEM, XRD, and contact angle goniometry. The water permeability and molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) of the substrate; and the FO performance of the TFC membrane were also determined. The Zn(2)GeO(4)-modified membrane showed ~45% increase in water permeability and NaCl salt rejection of 80% under RO mode. In FO mode, the ratio of water flux to reverse solute flux was also improved. However, lower FO flux was obtained which could be due to ICP. The result shows that Zn(2)GO(4) nanowire may be used as a modifier to the substrate to improve the quality of the polyamide layer on the substrate to improve the flux and selectivity, but not as effective in reducing ICP. This work demonstrates that the incorporation of nanomaterials to the membrane substrate may be an alternative approach to improve the formation of polyamide skin layer to achieve better FO performance.
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spelling pubmed-43840952015-05-04 Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process Low, Ze-Xian Liu, Qi Shamsaei, Ezzatollah Zhang, Xiwang Wang, Huanting Membranes (Basel) Communication Internal concentration polarization (ICP) in forward osmosis (FO) process is a characteristic problem for asymmetric thin-film composite (TFC) FO membrane which leads to lower water flux. To mitigate the ICP effect, modification of the substrates’ properties has been one of the most effective methods. A new polyethersulfone-based ultrafiltration membrane with increased surface porosity and high water flux was recently produced by incorporating Zn(2)GeO(4) nanowires. The composite membrane was used as a substrate for the fabrication of TFC FO membrane, by coating a thin layer of polyamide on top of the substrate. The substrate and the nanowires were characterized by a range of techniques such as SEM, XRD, and contact angle goniometry. The water permeability and molecular weight cut-offs (MWCO) of the substrate; and the FO performance of the TFC membrane were also determined. The Zn(2)GeO(4)-modified membrane showed ~45% increase in water permeability and NaCl salt rejection of 80% under RO mode. In FO mode, the ratio of water flux to reverse solute flux was also improved. However, lower FO flux was obtained which could be due to ICP. The result shows that Zn(2)GO(4) nanowire may be used as a modifier to the substrate to improve the quality of the polyamide layer on the substrate to improve the flux and selectivity, but not as effective in reducing ICP. This work demonstrates that the incorporation of nanomaterials to the membrane substrate may be an alternative approach to improve the formation of polyamide skin layer to achieve better FO performance. MDPI 2015-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4384095/ /pubmed/25803239 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes5010136 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Low, Ze-Xian
Liu, Qi
Shamsaei, Ezzatollah
Zhang, Xiwang
Wang, Huanting
Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title_full Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title_fullStr Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title_full_unstemmed Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title_short Preparation and Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Membrane with Nanowire-Modified Support for Forward Osmosis Process
title_sort preparation and characterization of thin-film composite membrane with nanowire-modified support for forward osmosis process
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4384095/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25803239
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes5010136
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