Wang Zihui, Liu Haiping, Liu Zihan, Wang Ying, Yang Jiaxuan, Bai Langming, Wang Jinlong, Zhang Han, Li Guibai, Liang Heng
State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China.
Water Res. 2025 Apr 1;273:123070. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.123070. Epub 2024 Dec 29.
Nanofiltration (NF) membranes offer tremendous potential in wastewater reuse, desalination, and resource recovery to alleviate water scarcity and environmental contamination. However, separating micropollutants and charged ions from wastewater while maintaining high water permeation remains challenging for conventional NF membranes. Customizing diffusion and interaction behavior of monomers at membrane-forming interfaces is promising for regulating interior pore structures and surface morphology properties for polyamide NF membranes, reaching efficient screening and retaining of solutes from water. In this work, photopolymerization occurred on two-phase interfaces of interfacial polymerization to modulate monomer diffusion toward reaction interfaces, accelerating reaction process and narrowing reaction area thus improving interior pore uniformity and free-volume regularity. Density distributions and interactive energies of monomers at the interface were explored to illustrate the effect of monomer diffusive behavior regulated by photopolymerization on membrane physicochemical properties and separation performance through molecular dynamics simulations. Pore size distributions were simulated to verify experimental results. Layers of nodules and rod-like structures appeared on the membrane surfaces. Membranes with interface photopolymerization exhibited a water permeability of 46.0 L·m·h·bar more than five-fold that of the control, with improved monovalent and multivalent ions separation. Surface photopolymerized membranes with water permeation of 26.6 L·m·h·bar (more than three times as high as the control) achieved excellent micropollutant and salt removal. This work provides a foundation for constructing NF membranes with specific separation functions for environmental applications.
纳滤（NF）膜在废水回用、海水淡化和资源回收方面具有巨大潜力，可缓解水资源短缺和环境污染问题。然而，对于传统的纳滤膜来说，在保持高水通量的同时从废水中分离微污染物和带电离子仍然具有挑战性。定制成膜界面处单体的扩散和相互作用行为，有望调节聚酰胺纳滤膜的内部孔结构和表面形态特性，实现从水中高效筛选和截留溶质。在这项工作中，光聚合发生在界面聚合的两相界面上，以调节单体向反应界面的扩散，加速反应过程并缩小反应区域，从而提高内部孔的均匀性和自由体积规整性。通过分子动力学模拟探索了界面处单体的密度分布和相互作用能，以说明光聚合调节的单体扩散行为对膜物理化学性质和分离性能的影响。模拟孔径分布以验证实验结果。膜表面出现了结节层和棒状结构。具有界面光聚合的膜表现出46.0 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹·bar⁻¹的水通量，是对照膜的五倍多，同时单价和多价离子分离性能得到改善。水通量为26.6 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹·bar⁻¹（是对照膜的三倍多）的表面光聚合膜实现了优异的微污染物和盐分去除效果。这项工作为构建具有特定分离功能的纳滤膜用于环境应用提供了基础。
