RESEARCH ARTICLE

Thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes with substrate layer composed of polysulfone blended with PEG or polysulfone grafted PEG methyl ether methacrylate

  • Baicang Liu , 1,2 ,
  • Chen Chen 3 ,
  • Pingju Zhao 1,2 ,
  • Tong Li 4 ,
  • Caihong Liu 5 ,
  • Qingyuan Wang 1,2 ,
  • Yongsheng Chen 6 ,
  • John Crittenden 6
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  • 1. College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
  • 2. Institute of New Energy and Low Carbon Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, China
  • 3. Litree Purifying Technology Co., Ltd, Haikou 571126, China
  • 4. Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
  • 5. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
  • 6. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA

Received date: 01 Mar 2016

Accepted date: 18 Jun 2016

Published date: 29 Nov 2016

Copyright

2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

To advance commercial application of forward osmosis (FO), we investigated the effects of two additives on the performance of polysulfone (PSf) based FO membranes: one is poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and another is PSf grafted with PEG methyl ether methacrylate (PSf-g-PEGMA). PSf blended with PEG or PSf-g-PEGMA was used to form a substrate layer, and then polyamide was formed on a support layer by interfacial polymerization. In this study, NaCl (1 mol∙L−1) and deionized water were used as the draw solution and the feed solution, respectively. With the increase of PEG content from 0 to 15 wt-%, FO water flux declined by 23.4% to 59.3% compared to a PSf TFC FO membrane. With the increase of PSf-g-PEGMA from 0 to 15 wt-%, the membrane flux showed almost no change at first and then declined by about 52.0% and 50.4%. The PSf with 5 wt-% PSf-g-PEGMA FO membrane showed a higher pure water flux of 8.74 L∙m−2∙h−1 than the commercial HTI membranes (6–8 L∙m−2∙h−1) under the FO mode. Our study suggests that hydrophobic interface is very important for the formation of polyamide, and a small amount of PSf-g-PEGMA can maintain a good condition for the formation of polyamide and reduce internal concentration polarization.

Cite this article

Baicang Liu , Chen Chen , Pingju Zhao , Tong Li , Caihong Liu , Qingyuan Wang , Yongsheng Chen , John Crittenden . Thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes with substrate layer composed of polysulfone blended with PEG or polysulfone grafted PEG methyl ether methacrylate[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2016 , 10(4) : 562 -574 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-016-1588-9

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51278317). We would like to express our special thanks to Prof. Elimelech and his group members at Yale University (New Haven, CN, USA) for guidance on FO experimental setups and interfacial polymerization.
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