Tang Yuanyuan, Li Shan, Xu Jia, Gao Congjie
Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2020 Jan 23;12(2):260. doi: 10.3390/polym12020260.
This study reported a series of thin film composite (TFC) membranes with single-walled nanotubes (SWCNTs) interlayers for the forward osmosis (FO) application. Pure SWCNTs with ultrahigh length-to-diameter ratio and without any functional group were applied to form an interconnect network interlayer via strong π-π interactions. Compared to the TFC membrane without SWCNTs interlayer, our TFC membrane with optimal SWCNTs interlayer exhibited more than three times the water permeability (A) of 3.3 L mhbar in RO mode with 500 mg L NaCl as feed solution and nearly three-fold higher FO water flux of 62.8 L m h in FO mode with the deionized water as feed solution and 1 M NaCl as draw solution. Meanwhile, the TFC membrane with SWCNTs interlayer exhibited significantly reduced membrane structure parameters (S) to immensely mitigate the effect of internal concentration polarization (ICP) in support layer with micro-sized pores in favor of higher water flux. It showed that the pure SWCNTs interlayer could be an effective strategy to apply in FO membranes.
本研究报道了一系列用于正向渗透（FO）应用的、带有单壁纳米管（SWCNT）中间层的薄膜复合（TFC）膜。使用具有超高长径比且无任何官能团的纯SWCNT，通过强π-π相互作用形成互连网络中间层。与没有SWCNT中间层的TFC膜相比，我们具有最佳SWCNT中间层的TFC膜在以500 mg/L NaCl为进料溶液的反渗透（RO）模式下，水渗透率（A）为3.3 L m⁻² h⁻¹ bar⁻¹，是其三倍多；在以去离子水为进料溶液、1 M NaCl为汲取溶液的FO模式下，FO水通量为62.8 L m⁻² h⁻¹，几乎高出两倍。同时，带有SWCNT中间层的TFC膜的膜结构参数（S）显著降低，极大地减轻了具有微孔的支撑层中内浓差极化（ICP）的影响，有利于实现更高的水通量。结果表明，纯SWCNT中间层可能是一种应用于FO膜的有效策略。
