• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.16-34
• /
• 2021

Water supplies are decreasing in comparison to increasing clean water demands. Using nanofiltration is one of the most effective and economical methods to meet the need for clean water. Common methods for desalination are reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. However, pristine membranes lack the essential features which are, stability, economic efficiency, antibacterial and antifouling performances. To enhance the properties of the pristine membranes, graphene oxide (GO) is a promising and widely researched material for thin film composites (TFC) membrane due to their characteristics that help improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties. Modification of the membrane can be done on different layers. The thin film composite membranes are composed of three different layers, the top filtering active thin polyamide (PA) layer, supporting porous layer, and supporting fabric. Forward osmosis (FO) process is yet another energy efficient desalination process, but its efficiency is affected due to biofouling. Incorporation of GO enhance antibacterial properties leading to reduction of biofilm formation on the membrane surface. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an excellent process to generate clean energy from sea water and the biofouling of membrane is reduced by introduction of GO into the active layer of the TFC membrane. Different modifications on the membranes are being researched, each modification with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this review, modifications of nanofiltration membranes and their composites, characterization, and performances are discussed.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.44-53
• /
• 2007

The primary objective of this study is to increase the extent of water flux and fouling resistance of nano-filtration or reverse osmosis membranes. This study was performed to investigate the effect of surface characteristics of silane coated membranes on modified fouling index. Commercial polyamide composite RO membrane (RE1812-LP) and NF membrane (ESNA4040-LF) were treated with silane coupling agents in ethanol at five different concentrations. The silane coupling reagent, aminopropylmethoxydiethoxysilane, contains one aminoalkyl and three alkoxy groups. The hydrophilic effect of aminoalkyl group of APMDES on the permeability and fouling resistance of the modified membrane was examined. The surfaces of the modified membranes were characterized by FE-SEM, contact angle analyzer, and zeta potentiometer in order to confirm successful sol-gel methods. The modified NF membranes showed significantly enhanced water flux and fouling resistance without a decrease in salt rejection in divalent ionic feed solution.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.810-815
• /
• 2012

The cation exchange polymer, poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA), was coated onto polyamide (PA) thin film composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Then these membranes were investigated for the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA) to check whether there are some improvement. The contact angle of PSSA coated PA RO membrane showed $58^{\circ}$ from $78^{\circ}$, the value of PA RO membrane, which confirmed successful hydrophilization. As the operating pressure increased (2, 4, 8 atm for BSA, HA and SA 100 ppm in feed solution), the fouling phenomena was worse for both none- and PSSA-coated membranes. The fouling increased in the order of BSA>SA>HA due to the interactions between sulfonic acid in PSSA and functional groups of foulants. On the other hand more significant fouling reduction was observed in the order of HA>SA>BSA. The photographs of scanning electron microscopy showed the same trend. As a result, there was the improvement of fouling phenomena for the PSSA coated RO membranes, distinctly in the case of HA.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.9
• /
• pp.3348-3354
• /
• 2011

Oleanolic acid (OA) as template molecule, polyamide-6 (PA6) as basement membrane and poly(styrene-comaleic acid) (PSMA) were used to prepare PA6/PSMA-OA molecularly imprinted composite membranes by phase inversion method in supercritical $CO_2$ ($ScCO_2$). The template molecule (OA), [poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (PSMAH), PSMA, molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) imprinting OA and MIMs after elution were all characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The conditions that were the mass ratio between PSMA and OA from 3:1 to 8:1, temperature of $ScCO_2$ from $35^{\circ}C$ to $50^{\circ}C$ and pressure of $ScCO_2$ 12 MPa to 17 MPa were studied. It was obtained the largest adsorption rate and purity of OA after adsorption of the resultant MIMs, 50.41% and 96.15% respectively. After using PA6 film and non-woven fabrics as basement membrane respectively, it was found that smaller aperture of PA6 was used as basement membrane, a higher adsorption rate and a higher purity of OA after adsorption of the MIMs were obtained, and so were the stability and reproducibility of the resultant MIMs. After template molecules being removed, the MIMs had effective selectivity hydrogen bonding to separately bind in the binary components to the template molecules-oleanolic acid.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.107-112
• /
• 2014

The composite membranes were prepared on the surface of hydrophobic porous poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes through the interfacial polymerization. The preparation variables were the concentrations of piperazine (PIP), trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and the contents of polyethylene glyco l (PEG). The separation characterization of the resulting membranes were carried out for aqueous 100 ppm solution of NaCl, $CaSO_4$, and $MgCl_2$ and also mixed 300 ppm solution of NaCl and $CaSO_4$ in terms of the flux and rejection. Both the flux and rejection were the highest when the interfacial polymerization was conducted using TMC. When TMC concentration was 0.1 wt%, the flux and rejection were shown 48.3 LMH ($L/m^2{\cdot}hr$) and 59%, respectively. To improve the flux, the annealing post-treatment and the addition of PEG into piperazine were done. As expected, the overall flux was enhanced while the rejection was reduced.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.563-567
• /
• 1999

Reverse osmosis concentration for cephalosproin C was studied using a polyamide composite membrane, FT-30 in spiral wound type with high solute rejection. The experiments were carried out in the aqueous solution of cephalosporin C for water flux, solute rejection and mass transfer coefficient under applied pressure of $4{\sim}20kg/cm^2$, feed concentration of 100~1000 mg/L and feed velocity of 2.8 and 5.6 L/min at room temperature. The effect of operating pressure on the separation of cephalosporin C showed that permeate flux increased with increasing operation pressure. These results are consistent with those predicted by Kedem-Katchalsky model. Solute rejection was nearly 1. The increase of feed concentration caused the reduction of cephalosporin C rejection, which was higher at low concentration than at high concentration, but degree of reduction was small.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.329-338
• /
• 2017

Nanofiltration (NF) technology is a membrane-based separation process, which has been pervasively used as the high-effective technology for drinking water treatment. In this study, a kind of composite polyamide NF thin film is selected to investigate the removal efficiencies and mechanisms of 14 trace drugs, which are commonly and frequently detected in the drinking water. The results show that the removal efficiencies of most drugs are quite high, indicating the NF is an effective technology to improve the quality of drinking water. The removal efficiencies of carbamazepine, acetaminophen, estradiol, antipyrine and isopropyl-antipyrine in ultrapure water are $78.8{\pm}0.8%$, $16.4{\pm}0.5%$, $65.4{\pm}1.8%$, $71.1{\pm}1.5%$ and $89.8{\pm}0.38%$, respectively. Their rejection rates increase with the increasing of their three-dimensional sizes, which indicates that the steric exclusion plays a significant role in removal of these five drugs. The adsorption of estradiol with the strongest hydrophobicity has been studied, which indicates that adsorption is not negligible in terms of removing this kind of hydrophobic neutral drugs by NF technology. The removal efficiencies of indomethacin, diclofenac, naproxen, ketoprofen, ibuprofen, clofibric acid, sulfamethoxazole, amoxicillin and bezafibrate in ultrapure water are $81{\pm}0.3%$, $86.3{\pm}0.5%$, $85.7{\pm}0.4%$, $93.3{\pm}0.3%$, $86.6{\pm}2.5%$, $90.6{\pm}0.4%$, $59.7{\pm}1.7%$, $80.3{\pm}1.4%$ and $80{\pm}0.5%$, respectively. For these nine drugs, their rejection rates are better than the above five drugs because they are negatively charged in ultrapure water. Meanwhile, the membrane surface presents the negative charge. Therefore, both electrostatic repulsion and steric exclusion are indispensable in removing these negatively charged drugs. This study provides helpful and scientific support of a highly effective water treatment method for removing drugs pollutants from drinking water.