Development of novel, less-expensive, and highly-selective membranes for use in continuous reverse osmosis (RO) processes could reduce both the capital and operating costs for modern desalination operations.  The flexibility of the spray layer-by-layer (spray-LbL) assembly process enables the deposition of composite polyelectrolyte/clay thin films on porous hydrophilic substrates to serve as a selective layer, and is particularly suited because large asymmetric films can be deposited orders of magnitude faster than with traditional dip-LbL.  The composition and physical properties of spray-LbL assembled thin films can be fine-tuned by manipulating the film assembly conditions.  Using mathematical modeling on data collected from dead-end and cross-flow permeation cells, permeability coefficients for water and salt through selective layers of varying film composition are calculated.  Preliminary data have confirmed the viability of using composite polyelectrolyte-clay films to increase the selectivity of commercially available RO membranes.

Application of spray layer-by-layer assembled composite polyelectrolyte-clay thin films as selective layers in reverse osmosis membranes

244th National Meeting (2012)

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