Many technologies exploiting the process of osmosis have been introduced to augment the world's depleting fresh water sources � reverse osmosis (RO), pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), and forward osmosis (FO). Integrally skinned cellulosic membranes perform minimally in FO/PRO applications, but lack appropriate mechanical and chemical stability. Conventional polyamide (PA)-polysulfone (PSf) composite membranes do not perform adequately in FO/PRO applications because of their hydrophobic, low porosity support materials. Traditionally, hydrophilic and high-porosity support membranes do not produce acceptable separation performance RO membranes, but recent evidence suggests they may work well for polyamide FO/PRO composite membranes. Herein, we introduce hand-casted PA-polyaniline (PANi) composite membranes as next generation FO/PRO membrane materials. Well-controlled experiments show that PANi support membranes interact fundamentally differently with the monomers used to form PA composite membranes, but monomer solution composition and concentration can be optimized to form high-performance composite FO/PRO membranes.

Understanding the relationship between osmotic membrane structure, chemistry, and performance

244th National Meeting (2012)

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