Providing sustainable supplies of purified water and energy is a critical global challenge for the future, and polymer membranes will play a key role in addressing these clear and pressing global needs for water and energy. Polymer membrane-based processes dominate the desalination market because they are more energy-efficient than thermal desalination processes, and polymer membranes are crucial components in several rapidly developing power generation and energy storage applications that rely on membranes to control rates of water and/or ion transport. Much remains unknown about the influence of polymer structure on intrinsic water and ion transport properties, and these relationships must be developed to design next-generation polymer membrane materials.<br/><br/>For polymers that are of interest for desalination, the water/salt selectivity is a critical property that describes the intrinsic ability of the polymer to transport water as opposed to salt. An observed tradeoff relationship between water/salt permeability selectivity and water permeability suggests that both sorption and diffusion phenomena contribute significantly to water/salt permeability selectivity. This presentation discusses an experimental investigation of the influence of polymer backbone rigidity and functional group position on water/salt selectivity properties of model hydrated polymers. The results suggest that increasing polymer backbone rigidity and distributing hydrophilic functional groups evenly throughout the polymer both drive increases in water/salt selectivity properties that are critical for effective desalination membranes.

Engineering selective desalination membrane materials via polymer backbone rigidity and functional group position

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.