Breaking the permeability–selectivity trade-off in thin-film composite polyamide membranes with a PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG block copolymer ultrafiltration membrane support through post-annealing treatment
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract In this work, amphiphilic polyethylene glycol-block-polysulfone-block-polyethylene glycol (PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG) was used as a membrane support to fabricate a high-performance thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membrane. A facile post-annealing approach was developed to simultaneously improve the water permeability and antifouling property of the TFC membrane having the PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG support without sacrificing its selectivity. The experimental results illustrate that a highly crosslinked polyamide with low reverse salt flux could be formed on the PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG support, and the post-annealing treatment could tailor the membrane structure and properties of the PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG support to decrease its structure parameter without affecting the polyamide. The annealed TFC membrane exhibited excellent permeability–selectivity, with a high A/B ratio of 19.6 bar−1 (water permeability coefficient A of 1.76 LMH·bar−1 and NaCl permeability coefficient B of 0.09 LMH). The static and dynamic antifouling performances of the annealed TFC membrane were also demonstrated, finding that little bovine serum albumin (BSA) was adsorbed on the PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG support surface, and a reduced water flux decline and a high water recovery were achieved compared with those of the control sample. Our work demonstrates that the amphiphilic PEG-b-PSF-b-PEG membrane can work as an ideal TFC support to break the permeability–selectivity trade-off of the TFC FO membrane and to improve its antifouling properties through post-annealing treatment.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Membrane Separation Technologies · Membrane-based Ion Separation Techniques · Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (41)
Show source-provided references
1. Logan, B. E. & Elimelech, M. Membrane-based processes for sustainable power generation using water. Nature 488, 313–319 (2012).10.1038/nature11477 ↗
2. Elimelech, M. & Phillip, W. A. The future of seawater desalination: energy, technology, and the environment. Science 333, 712–717 (2011).10.1126/science.1200488 ↗
3. Coday, B. D. et al. The sweet spot of forward osmosis: treatment of produced water, drilling wastewater, and other complex and difficult liquid streams. Desalination 333, 23–35 (2014).10.1016/j.desal.2013.11.014 ↗
4. Han, G., Chan, S. S. & Chung, T.-S. Forward osmosis (FO) for water reclamation from emulsified oil/water solutions: effects of membrane and emulsion characteristics. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 4, 5021–5032 (2016).10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b01402 ↗
5. Yip, N. Y., Tiraferri, A., Phillip, W. A., Schiffman, J. D. & Elimelech, M. High performance thin-film composite forward osmosis membrane. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44, 3812–3818 (2010).10.1021/es1002555 ↗
6. Shannon, M. A. et al. Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades. Nature 452, 301–310 (2008).10.1038/nature06599 ↗
7. Hoover, L. A., Phillip, W. A., Tiraferri, A., Yip, N. Y. & Elimelech, M. Forward with osmosis: emerging applications for greater sustainability. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 9824–9830 (2011).10.1021/es202576h ↗
8. Song, X., Liu, Z. & Sun, D. D. Nano gives the answer: breaking the bottleneck of internal concentration polarization with a nanofiber composite forward osmosis membrane for a high water production rate. Adv. Mater. 23, 3256–3260 (2011).10.1002/adma.201100510 ↗
9. Shaffer, D. L., Werber, J. R., Jaramillo, H., Lin, S. & Elimelech, M. Forward osmosis: where are we now? Desalination 356, 271–284 (2015).10.1016/j.desal.2014.10.031 ↗
10. Akther, N. et al. Recent advancements in forward osmosis desalination: a review. Chem. Eng. J. 281, 502–522 (2015).10.1016/j.cej.2015.05.080 ↗
11. Tiraferri, A., Yip, N. Y., Phillip, W. A., Schiffman, J. D. & Elimelech, M. Relating performance of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes to support layer formation and structure. J. Membr. Sci. 367, 340–352 (2011).10.1016/j.memsci.2010.11.014 ↗
12. Obaid, M. et al. Amorphous SiO2 NP-incorporated poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun nanofiber membrane for high flux forward osmosis desalination. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8, 4561–4574 (2016).10.1021/acsami.5b09945 ↗
13. Duong, P. H. et al. Hydroxyl functionalized polytriazole-co-polyoxadiazole as substrates for forward osmosis membranes. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7, 3960–3973 (2015).10.1021/am508387d ↗
14. Xiao, P. et al. A sacrificial-layer approach to fabricate polysulfone support for forward osmosis thin-film composite membranes with reduced internal concentration polarisation. J. Membr. Sci. 481, 106–114 (2015).10.1016/j.memsci.2015.01.036 ↗
15. Werber, J. R., Osuji, C. O. & Elimelech, M. Materials for next-generation desalination and water purification membranes. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16018 (2016).10.1038/natrevmats.2016.18 ↗
16. Ghosh, A. K. & Hoek, E. M. V. Impacts of support membrane structure and chemistry on polyamide–polysulfone interfacial composite membranes. J. Membr. Sci. 336, 140–148 (2009).10.1016/j.memsci.2009.03.024 ↗
17. Wei, J., Qiu, C., Tang, C. Y., Wang, R. & Fane, A. G. Synthesis and characterization of flat-sheet thin film composite forward osmosis membranes. J. Membr. Sci. 372, 292–302 (2011).10.1016/j.memsci.2011.02.013 ↗
18. Raaijmakers, M. J. T. & Benes, N. E. Current trends in interfacial polymerization chemistry. Prog. Polym. Sci. 63, 86–142 (2016).10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2016.06.004 ↗
19. Wang, N., Wang, T. & Hu, Y. Tailoring membrane surface properties and ultrafiltration performances via the self-assembly of polyethylene glycol-block-polysulfone-block-polyethylene glycol block copolymer upon thermal and solvent annealing. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9, 31018–31030 (2017).10.1021/acsami.7b06997 ↗
20. Lu, X., Arias Chavez, L. H., Romero-Vargas Castrillon, S., Ma, J. & Elimelech, M. Influence of active layer and support layer surface structures on organic fouling propensity of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes. Environ. Sci. Technol. 49, 1436–1444 (2015).10.1021/es5044062 ↗
21. Yin, J. et al. Membranes with highly ordered straight nanopores by selective swelling of fast perpendicularly aligned block copolymers. ACS Nano 7, 9961–9974 (2013).10.1021/nn403847z ↗
22. Huang, L. & McCutcheon, J. R. Impact of support layer pore size on performance of thin film composite membranes for forward osmosis. J. Membr. Sci. 483, 25–33 (2015).10.1016/j.memsci.2015.01.025 ↗
23. Liu, Z. & Hu, Y. Sustainable antibiofouling properties of thin film composite forward osmosis membrane with rechargeable silver nanoparticles loading. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8, 21666–21673 (2016).10.1021/acsami.6b06727 ↗
24. Tiraferri, A., Yip, N. Y., Straub, A. P., Romero-Vargas Castrillon, S. & Elimelech, M. A method for the simultaneous determination of transport and structural parameters of forward osmosis membranes. J. Membr. Sci. 444, 523–538 (2013).10.1016/j.memsci.2013.05.023 ↗
25. Furuike, T., Chaochai, T., Komoto, D. & Tamura, H. Adsorption and desorption behaviors of bovine serum albumin on gelatin/chitosan sponge. J. Mater. Sci. Chem. Eng. 05, 109–120 (2017).
26. Yip, N. Y. & Elimelech, M. Influence of natural organic matter fouling and osmotic backwash on pressure retarded osmosis energy production from natural salinity gradients. Environ. Sci. Technol. 47, 12607–12616 (2013).10.1021/es403207m ↗
27. Zhao, J. et al. Improved biocompatibility and antifouling property of polypropylene non-woven fabric membrane by surface grafting zwitterionic polymer. J. Membr. Sci. 369, 5–12 (2011).10.1016/j.memsci.2010.10.046 ↗
28. Oh, S. J., Kim, N. & Lee, Y. T. Preparation and characterization of PVDF/TiO2 organic–inorganic composite membranes for fouling resistance improvement. J. Membr. Sci. 345, 13–20 (2009).10.1016/j.memsci.2009.08.003 ↗
29. Behboudi, A., Jafarzadeh, Y. & Yegani, R. Enhancement of antifouling and antibacterial properties of PVC hollow fiber ultrafiltration membranes using pristine and modified silver nanoparticles. J. Environ. Chem. Eng. 6, 1764–1773 (2018).10.1016/j.jece.2018.02.031 ↗
30. Yang, Y., Zhang, H., Wang, P., Zheng, Q. & Li, J. The influence of nano-sized TiO2 fillers on the morphologies and properties of PSF UF membrane. J. Membr. Sci. 288, 231–238 (2007).10.1016/j.memsci.2006.11.019 ↗
31. Fan, Z., Wang, Z., Sun, N., Wang, J. & Wang, S. Performance improvement of polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane by blending with polyaniline nanofibers. J. Membr. Sci. 320, 363–371 (2008).10.1016/j.memsci.2008.04.019 ↗
32. Romero-Vargas Castrillón, S., Lu, X., Shaffer, D. L. & Elimelech, M. Amine enrichment and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) surface modification of thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes for organic fouling control. J. Membr. Sci. 450, 331–339 (2014).10.1016/j.memsci.2013.09.028 ↗
33. Peinemann, K. V., Abetz, V. & Simon, P. F. Asymmetric superstructure formed in a block copolymer via phase separation. Nat. Mater. 6, 992–996 (2007).10.1038/nmat2038 ↗
34. Phillip, W. A. et al. Tuning structure and properties of graded triblock terpolymer-based mesoporous and hybrid films. Nano Lett. 11, 2892–2900 (2011).10.1021/nl2013554 ↗
35. Wang, J.-J., Yang, H.-C., Wu, M.-B., Zhang, X. & Xu, Z.-K. Nanofiltration membranes with cellulose nanocrystals as an interlayer for unprecedented performance. J. Mater. Chem. A 5, 16289–16295 (2017).10.1039/C7TA00501F ↗
36. Tian, M., Qiu, C., Liao, Y., Chou, S. & Wang, R. Preparation of polyamide thin film composite forward osmosis membranes using electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers as substrates. Sep. Purif. Technol. 118, 727–736 (2013).10.1016/j.seppur.2013.08.021 ↗
37. Bui, N. N. & McCutcheon, J. R. Hydrophilic nanofibers as new supports for thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis. Environ. Sci. Technol. 47, 1761–1769 (2013).10.1021/es304215g ↗
38. Puguan, J. M. C., Kim, H.-S., Lee, K.-J. & Kim, H. Low internal concentration polarization in forward osmosis membranes with hydrophilic crosslinked PVA nanofibers as porous support layer. Desalination 336, 24–31 (2014).10.1016/j.desal.2013.12.031 ↗
39. Liang, H.-Q. et al. Forward osmosis membranes with unprecedented water flux. J. Membr. Sci. 529, 47–54 (2017).10.1016/j.memsci.2017.01.056 ↗
40. Li, X.-M. et al. Origin of delamination/adhesion in polyetherimide/polysulfone co-cast membranes. J. Membr. Sci. 352, 173–179 (2010).10.1016/j.memsci.2010.02.013 ↗
41. Liu, Z. Y. et al. Modification of thin film composite polyamide membranes with 3D hyperbranched polyglycerol for simultaneous improvement in their filtration performance and antifouling properties. J. Mater. Chem. A 5, 23190–23197 (2017).10.1039/C7TA07335F ↗