Interfacial polymerization, while effective at making thin film composite desalination membranes of high permeability and selectivity, is a relatively uncontrolled process that prevents tuning of polyamide film thickness or roughness. A new approach is presented which uses electrospraying to deposit monomer solutions in nanoscale droplets directly onto a substrate where they subsequently react to form the crosslinked polyamide film essentially on any surface. This printing approach enables film thickness control to 4 nm resolution (~20 nm total thickness) and achieves films with a root mean square roughness as low as 2 nm. The higher performing membranes in this study exceeded both the permeance (as much as a 10-fold improvement) and selectivity (notably higher salt rejections) of commercially available reverse osmosis membranes in addition to their substantially lower roughness. The method is also scalable and potentially reduces chemical consumption in membrane fabrication by over ten-fold.

3D printed thin film composite membranes

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.