Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
Recent Pat Nanotechnol. 2021;15(2):105-124. doi: 10.2174/1872210514666201014152621.
Polyamide (PA) Thin-Film Composite (TFC) membranes are widely used for large-scale water and wastewater treatment processes worldwide owing to their good balance between water permeability and dissolved solutes separation rate. The physicochemical properties of the cross-linked PA layer are the main criteria determining the filtration performance of the resultant TFC membrane, and this selective layer can be created through Interfacial Polymerization (IP) between two immiscible active monomers, i.e., amine monomer in aqueous solution and acyl chloride monomer in organic solution. This patent review article intends to provide insights to researchers in fabricating improved properties of TFC membranes through the utilization of secondary monomers during IP process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review that gives a state-of-the-art account of the subject matter by emphasizing the impacts of secondary monomers (both amine and acyl chloride monomers) on the properties of conventional TFC membranes for nanofiltration and reverse osmosis applications. Our review indicated that the introduction of secondary monomers into either aqueous or organic solution could alter the physical and chemical properties of PA layer, which led to variations in membrane filtration performance. Nevertheless, more research is still required, as most of the secondary monomers reported in the literature did not overcome the membrane trade-off effect between permeability and selectivity. The subject of improved PA layer development is a multi-disciplinary study that requires researchers with different backgrounds (e.g., materials science, chemistry, physics and engineering) to work together.
聚酰胺（PA）薄膜复合（TFC）膜由于其在水渗透性和溶解溶质分离率之间的良好平衡，在全球范围内被广泛用于大规模的水和废水处理工艺。交联 PA 层的物理化学性质是决定所得 TFC 膜过滤性能的主要标准，而这种选择性层可以通过两种不混溶的活性单体之间的界面聚合（IP）来创建，即水溶液中的胺单体和有机溶液中的酰氯单体。本文综述旨在通过在 IP 过程中使用二次单体，为研究人员提供制造 TFC 膜改进性能的见解。据我们所知，这是第一篇强调二次单体（胺和酰氯单体）对用于纳滤和反渗透应用的常规 TFC 膜性能的影响的综述文章，它概述了这一主题。我们的综述表明，将二次单体引入水相或有机相可以改变 PA 层的物理和化学性质，从而导致膜过滤性能的变化。然而，仍需要更多的研究，因为文献中报道的大多数二次单体并没有克服膜渗透性和选择性之间的权衡效应。改进 PA 层开发的主题是一个多学科的研究，需要具有不同背景（例如材料科学、化学、物理和工程）的研究人员共同努力。
