• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.276-285
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• 1997

The theoretical and experimental analysis on polyamide used for reverse osmosis thin-film composite membrane had been conducted. The physicochemical properties of polyamide had been varied by preparation recipes which depends on kinds of monomer, solvents and polymerization time. These properties and performance as a reverse osmosis membrane had been calculated by group contribution method. The experimental results has the same trends with theoretical preview.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.211-220
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• 2018

Incorporating nano-materials in thin-film composite (TFC) membranes has been considered to be an approach to achieve higher membrane performance in various water treatment processes. This study investigated the rejection efficiency of three target compounds, i.e., reserpine, norfloxacin and tetracycline hydrochloride, by TFC membranes with different graphene oxide proportions. Graphene oxide (GO) was incorporated into the polyamide active layer of a TFC membrane via an interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction. The TFC membranes were characterized with FTIR, FE-SEM, AFM; in addition, the water contact angle measurements as well as the permeation and separation performance were evaluated. The prepared GO-TFC membranes exhibited a much higher flux ($3.11{\pm}0.04L/m2{\cdot}h{\cdot}bar$) than the pristine TFC membranes ($2.12{\pm}0.05L/m2{\cdot}h{\cdot}bar$) without sacrificing their foulant rejection abilities. At the same time, the GO-modified membrane appeared to be less sensitive to pH changes than the pure TFC membrane. A significant improvement in the anti-fouling property of the membrane was observed, which was ascribed to the favorable change in the membrane's hydrophilicity, surface morphology and surface charge through the addition of an appropriate amount of GO. This study predominantly improved the understanding of the different PA/GO membranes and outlined improved industrial applications of such membranes in the future.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2016

Thin film composite (TFC) polyamide membranes were prepared on polysulfone (PSF) supports for forward osmosis (FO) applications. To understand the influence of polarity and porosity of support layer on the formation of polyamide structure and the final FO performance, clathochelate metal complex (MC) contained PSF supports were prepared via the phase inversion process from various PSF casting solutions containing 0.1-0.5 wt% of MC in dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent (18 wt%). A crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was then fabricated on top of each support to form a TFC membrane. For the porous PSF supports prepared with relatively low concentration casting solutions (12 wt%), the PET film was removed after phase inversion and crosslinked aromatic polyamide layer was then fabricated. The tested sample from PSF (18 wt%)/MC (0.5 wt%) casting solution presented outstanding FO performance, almost similar water flux (9.99 LMH) with lower reverse salt flux (RSF, 0.77 GMH) compared to commercial HTI FO membrane(10.97 LMH of flux and 2.2 GMH of RSF). By addition of MC in casting solution, the thickness of the active layer in FO membranes was reduced, however, the increased RSF value was obtained.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.451-460
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• 2019

Thin film composite membranes incorporated with nano-sized hydrophilic zeolite -A were successfully prepared via interfacial polymerization (IP) on porous blend PES/PAN support for water desalination. The thin film nanocomposite membranes were characterized by SEM, contact angle and performance test with 7000 ppm NaCl solution at 7bar. The results showed that the optimum zeolite loading amount was determined to be 0.1wt% with permeate flux 29LMH.NaCl rejection was improved from 69% to 92% compared to the pristine polyamide membrane where the modified PA surface was more selective than that of the pristine PA. In addition, there was no significant change in the permeate flux of the thin film nanocomposite membrane compared with that of the pristine PA in spite of the formation of the dense polyamide layer. The stability of the polyamide layer was investigated for 15 days and the optimized membrane presented the highest durability and stability.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.323-336
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• 2017

The main challenge in many applications of acetic acid is acid dehydration and its recovery from wastewater streams. Therefore, the performance of polyamide thin film composite is evaluated to separate acetic acid from water. To reach this goal, the formation of polyamide layer on polysulfone support membrane was investigated via interfacial polymerization (IP) of meta-phenylenediamine (MPD) in water with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in hexane. Also, the effect of synthesis conditions, such as concentration of monomers and curing temperature on separation of acetic acid from water were investigated by reverse osmosis process. Moreover, the separation mechanism was discussed. The solute permeation was carried out under applied pressure of 5 bar at $25^{\circ}C$. Surface properties of TFC membrane were characterized by ATR-FTIR, SEM and AFM. The performance test indicated that 3.5 wt% of MPD, 0.35 wt% of TMC and curing temperature of $75^{\circ}C$ are the optimum conditions. Moreover, the permeate flux was $4.3{\frac{L}{m^2\;h}}$ and acetic acid rejection was about 43% at these conditions.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.613-623
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• 2017

We report the novel thin film composite RO membrane modified by graphene oxide. The thin film composite RO membrane was exposed to 2000 mg/l sodium hypochloride; thereafter it was subjected to different graphene oxide concentration ranging from 50 mg/l to 1000 mg/l in water. The resultant membrane was crosslinked with 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide. The performance of different membranes were analysed by solute rejection and water-flux measurement. It was found that 100 mg/l graphene oxide exposure followed by 5000 mg/l N-hydroxysuccinimide treatment resulted in the membrane with the highest solute rejection of 97.78% and water-flux of 4.64 Liter per sqm per hour per bar g. The membranes were characterized by contact angle for hydrophilicity, scanning electron micrographs for surface morphology, energy dispersive X-Ray for chemical composition of the surface, Atomic force microscope for surface roughness, ATR-FTIR for chemical structure identification. It was found that the graphene oxide modified membrane increases the salt rejection performance after exposure to high-fouling water containing albumin. Highly hydrophilic, antifouling surface formation with the nanomaterial led to the improved membrane performance. Moreover, the protocol of incorporating nanomaterial by this post-treatment is simple and can be applied to any RO membrane after it is manufactured.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.135-153
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• 1998

Nanofiltration (NF) is a recently introduced term in membrane separation. In 1988, Eriksson was one of the first authors using the word 'nanofiltration' explicitly. Some years before, FilmTech started to use this term for their NF50 membrane which was supposed to be a very loose reverse osmosis membrane or a very tight ultrafiltration membrane. Since then, this term has been introduced to indicate a specific boundary of membrane technology in between ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. The application fields of the NF membranes are very broad as follows: Demeneralizing water, Cleaning up contaminated groundwater, Ultrapure water production, Treatment of effleunts containing heavy metals, Offshore oil platforms, Yeast production, Pulp and paper mills, Textile production, Electroless copper plating, Cheese whey production, Cyclodextrin production, Lactose production. The earliest NF membrane was made by Cadotte et al, using piperazine and trimesoyl chloride as monomers for the formation of polyamide active layer of the composite type membrane. They coated very thin interfacially potymerized polyamide on the surface of the microporous polysulfone supports. The NF membrane exhibited low rejections for monovalent anions (chloride) and high rejections for bivalent anions (sulphate). This membrane was called NS300. Some of the earliest NF membranes, like the NF40 membrane of FilmTech, the NTR7250 of Nitto-Denko and the UTC20 and UTC60 of Toray, are formed by a comparable synthesis route as the NS300 membrane. Commercially available NF membranes nowadays are as follows: ASP35 (Advanced Membrane Technology), MPF21; MPF32 (Kiryat Weizmann), UTC20; UTC60; UTC70; UTC90 (Toray), CTA-LP; TFCS (Fluid Systems), NF45; NF70 (FilmTec), BQ01; MX07; HG01; HG19; SX01; SX10 (Osmonics), 8040-LSY-PVDI (Hydranautics), NF CA30; NF PES 10 (Hoechst), WFN0505 (Stork Friesland). The typical ones among the commercially available NF membranes are polyamide composite membrane consisting of interfacially polymerized polyamide active layer and microporous support. While showing high water fluxes and high rejections of multivalent ions and small organic molecules, these membranes have relatively low chemical stability. These membranes have low chlorine tolerance and are unstable in acid or base solution. This chemical instability is appearing to be a big obstacle for their applications. To improve the chemical stability, we have tried, in this study, to prepare chemically stable NF membranes from PVA. The ionomers and interfacially polymerized polyamide were used for the modification of'the PVA membranes. For the detail study of the active layer, homogeneous NF membranes made only from active layer materials were prepared and for the high performance, composite type NF membranes were prepared by coating the active layer materials on microporous polysulfone supports.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 2005

The poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based thin film composite nanofiltration (NF) membranes were prepared by coating polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes, sulfonated polyethersulfone and polyamide NF membranes with aqueous PVA solution by a pressurizing method. The PVA was cross-linked with aqueous glutaraldehyde solution. The NF membranes coated with a very low concentration of PVA on all the support membranes was successfully prepared. With increasing the hydrophilicity of the support membranes, the water flux increased. Especially, ζ-potential of negatively charged polyamide NF membrane was reduced by coating the membrane with PVA. A fouling experiment was carried out with positively charged surfactant, humic acid, complex of humic acid and calcium ion and bovine serum albumin. A non-coated polyamide NF membrane was significantly fouled by various foulants. The fouling process when using humic acid and protein occurred at the isoelectric point. There was severe fouling when using humic acid and adding bivalent cations. By coating the polyamide NF membrane with aqueous PVA solution, fouling was reduced. The polyamide NF membrane coated with PVA was resistant to the acidic and basic solution.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.82-85
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• 2004

Flux-enhancement mechanism of thin-film-composite (TFC) membranes for the reverse comosis (RO) process was newly explained by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) that has been found to be applied for detecting molecular vacancies or pores having sizes that are equivalent to salt or hydrate ions in RO membrane.(omitted)

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.317-324
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• 2014

It is very well known that the conventional polyamide (PA) thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have excellent permselective properties, but their chlorine tolerance is not good enough. In this study, to improve such chlorine tolerance, microporous membranes containing hydrophilic functional groups such as -COOH were used as a support to prepare PA TFC RO membranes, employing the conventional interfacial polymerization method. Meta-phenylene diamine (MPD) and 2,6-diamine toluene (2,6-DAT) were used as diamine monomers and tri-mesoyl chloride (TMC) as an acid monomer. The membranes prepared were characterized using various instrumental analytical methods and permeation test set-up. The flux obtained from the membranes prepared so was more than $1.0m^3/m^2day$ at 800 psi of operating pressure, while the salt rejection was over 99.0%. The chlorine tolerance of them was also found to be better than that of the membrane prepared by using conventional polysulfone support without hydrophilic functional groups.