Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes have gained popularity in water treatment plants around the world for addressing water shortage problems. There has been an increasing demand for enhancing water production rate of the membranes to carry out the process with low energy. Improvement the solute rejection rate and durability of RO membranes is an also important issue to ensure consistent supply of high quality water. Structural analysis and control of the membranes are the keys to the improvement of the performance. Typical RO membranes have composite structures. Cross-linked aromatic polyamide functional layer, which is formed on supporting membrane, affords separation properties. The functional layer has sub-um-size protuberance structures and sub-nm-size pores. Detailed analysis and design of these structures are important to the development of RO membranes with high performance. In our past work, pores were found to be strongly correlated to the removal capability of solutes, using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). PALS results are confirmed to be in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulation. The morphology of protuberance structures was quantitatively examined by advanced TEM technology, such as TEM tomography. The relationships between membrane performance and the surface area, thickness, and uniformity of protuberance structures were successfully revealed through the utilization of the analyses. Based on the above results, energy-efficient RO membranes with high solute rejection were successfully developed by the precise control of the fine pores and the morphology.

Advanced RO membrane with high solute rejection and high water permeability

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.