TY - JOUR
T1 - Facile performance enhancement of reverse osmosis membranes via solvent activation with benzyl alcohol
AU - Shin, Min Gyu
AU - Park, Sang Hee
AU - Kwon, Soon Jin
AU - Kwon, Hyo Eun
AU - Park, Jong Bae
AU - Lee, Jung Hyun
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (NRF-2018R1A4A1022194), Korean Ministry of Environment as “Global Top Project (2016002100007)” and a Korea University Future Research Grant.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea ( NRF ) grant funded by the Korean government ( MSIP ) (NRF- 2018R1A4A1022194 ), Korean Ministry of Environment as “Global Top Project ( 2016002100007 )” and a Korea University Future Research Grant.
PY - 2019/5/15
Y1 - 2019/5/15
N2 - We present a facile method to enhance separation performance of polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes via solvent activation with a new type of organic solvent, benzyl alcohol (BA). Activation with BA remarkably improved water permeance (up to ∼140% increase) while maintaining high NaCl rejection (∼99.6%) of the pristine RO membrane, thereby overcoming the flux-rejection trade-off limitation. Thus, the water permeance and permselectivity of the BA-activated RO membrane significantly exceeded those of commercial RO membranes. This significant performance enhancement was attributed to the appropriate solvency power of BA (determined based on Hansen solubility parameters), which led to the balanced structural deformation of the PA selective layer; BA activation produced a less dense and highly permeable PA structure by greatly swelling PA, while simultaneously healing loosened sites via structural compaction of the PA network with a sufficiently reduced modulus. Based on the activation results with various organic solvents ranging from mild to strong solvents, we propose a more reliable predictor of the solvent activation effect. Our strategy is a simple, effective and commercially viable method to enhance RO membrane performance. Additionally, our study highlights on the underlying solvent activating mechanism of PA RO membranes.
AB - We present a facile method to enhance separation performance of polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes via solvent activation with a new type of organic solvent, benzyl alcohol (BA). Activation with BA remarkably improved water permeance (up to ∼140% increase) while maintaining high NaCl rejection (∼99.6%) of the pristine RO membrane, thereby overcoming the flux-rejection trade-off limitation. Thus, the water permeance and permselectivity of the BA-activated RO membrane significantly exceeded those of commercial RO membranes. This significant performance enhancement was attributed to the appropriate solvency power of BA (determined based on Hansen solubility parameters), which led to the balanced structural deformation of the PA selective layer; BA activation produced a less dense and highly permeable PA structure by greatly swelling PA, while simultaneously healing loosened sites via structural compaction of the PA network with a sufficiently reduced modulus. Based on the activation results with various organic solvents ranging from mild to strong solvents, we propose a more reliable predictor of the solvent activation effect. Our strategy is a simple, effective and commercially viable method to enhance RO membrane performance. Additionally, our study highlights on the underlying solvent activating mechanism of PA RO membranes.
KW - Benzyl alcohol
KW - Interfacial polymerization
KW - Polyamide thin film composite membrane
KW - Reverse osmosis
KW - Solvent activation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2019.02.027
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2019.02.027
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85061987422
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 578
SP - 220
EP - 229
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -