Since the development of FT30-interfacial polyamide chemistry by the late John Cadotte in the early 70's, efforts have been made to modified the polyamide chemistries to improve both energy and separation efficiency for reverse osmosis membrane.  However owing to the complex crosslinked nano scale morphological structure of polyamide, development of structure-property relationships has been a challenge.  In the last few years, leveraging Dow's strong analytical capabilities and blending with Dow Water& Process Solution expertise, for the first time, it has been possible to achieve a true fundamental structure-property relationship of polyamide RO membrane.  In depth characterization of polymer composition, morphology, topology and post gel properties coupled with fundamental transport and structural modeling led to a breakthrough in membrane chemistry innovation to lower energy requirements for brackish water low energy applications by 35% and at the same time to maintain the state of the art rejection standards. The research led to several fundamental understandings of how �polymer structure controls membrane performance�. For example, it was possible to design FT30 polyamide from a molecular level with systematic incorporation of carboxyl group moieties to understand the role of Donnan exclusion principle in controlling membrane performance. The paper will highlight the analytical characterization perform to understand the network structure and morphology with performance, with an objective to communicate broadly to the scientific community in designing novel and differentiated RO membranes for addressing today's energy crisis.

Methods toward understanding reverse osmosis membrane structure

248th National Meeting (2014)

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