Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (DNL), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy (DNL), Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Aug 25;784:147089. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147089. Epub 2021 Apr 19.
Highly permeable reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are desirable for alleviating the energy burden and ensuring future water sustainability. Herein, the effectiveness of green plasticizer-assisted interfacial polymerization (GPAIP) for preparing polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) RO membranes with significantly enhanced water permeability was demonstrated. The presence of green citrate plasticizers, namely tributyl citrate (TBC) or acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC), led to the formation of new hydrogen bonds and inhibited the formation of the initial interchain amide-amide bonding, thus markedly reducing chain rigidity as demonstrated by the decreased elasticity modulus. More flexible polyamide chains resulted in the creation of more ultrafast water channels during filtration. Furthermore, TBC-modified membranes exhibited more elastic polyamide layers and higher water flux than that of ATBC-modified membranes on account of the presence of both hydrogen bond acceptors (OH) and hydrogen bond donors (C=O) in TBC molecules. Specifically, water flux of 0.6 wt% TBC-modified and 0.6 wt% ATBC-modified membranes was 83.6 L m h and 49.7 L m h respectively, more than 5 times and 3 times that of the pristine membrane. The excellent performance of TFC RO membranes fabricated via GPAIP together with the facile membrane manufacturing process offered the possibility of breaking the predicament in desalination field, which could eventually help ease the current freshwater crisis.
高度渗透的反渗透（RO）膜对于减轻能源负担和确保未来水资源可持续性是理想的。在此，通过绿色增塑剂辅助界面聚合（GPAIP）制备具有显著提高水渗透性的聚酰胺薄膜复合（TFC）RO 膜的有效性得到了证明。绿色柠檬酸增塑剂，即柠檬酸三丁酯（TBC）或乙酰柠檬酸三丁酯（ATBC）的存在形成了新的氢键，并抑制了初始链间酰胺-酰胺键的形成，从而显著降低了弹性模量，表明链的刚性降低。更灵活的聚酰胺链在过滤过程中形成了更多的超快水通道。此外，由于 TBC 分子中同时存在氢键受体（OH）和氢键供体（C=O），TBC 改性膜具有更有弹性的聚酰胺层和更高的水通量，高于 ATBC 改性膜。具体而言，0.6wt%TBC 改性和 0.6wt%ATBC 改性膜的水通量分别为 83.6Lm h 和 49.7Lm h，是原始膜的 5 倍和 3 倍以上。通过 GPAIP 制造的 TFC RO 膜具有优异的性能，再加上简单的膜制造工艺，为打破海水淡化领域的困境提供了可能，这最终有助于缓解当前的淡水危机。
