Providing sustainable supplies of water and energy are critical global challenges. Polymer membranes dominate desalination and could be crucial to power generation applications. These desalination and power generation applications include reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), forward osmosis (FO), pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), electrodialysis (ED), membrane capacitive deionization (CDI), and reverse electrodialysis (RED). Improved membranes with tailored water and salt transport properties are required to extend and optimize these technologies. Water and salt transport structure/property relationships are needed to provide the fundamental framework for optimizing polymer materials for these applications. Sodium chloride permeability, sorption, and diffusion properties of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels, sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) random copolymers, and sulfonated styrenic pentablock copolymers were studied and modeled to probe the influence of polymer charge, water content, polymer structure, and micro- as well as molecular-scale structural heterogeneity on salt transport properties.

Structure/property relationships in polymer membranes for water purification and power generation

244th National Meeting (2012)

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