• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-34
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• 2021

Water supplies are decreasing in comparison to increasing clean water demands. Using nanofiltration is one of the most effective and economical methods to meet the need for clean water. Common methods for desalination are reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. However, pristine membranes lack the essential features which are, stability, economic efficiency, antibacterial and antifouling performances. To enhance the properties of the pristine membranes, graphene oxide (GO) is a promising and widely researched material for thin film composites (TFC) membrane due to their characteristics that help improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties. Modification of the membrane can be done on different layers. The thin film composite membranes are composed of three different layers, the top filtering active thin polyamide (PA) layer, supporting porous layer, and supporting fabric. Forward osmosis (FO) process is yet another energy efficient desalination process, but its efficiency is affected due to biofouling. Incorporation of GO enhance antibacterial properties leading to reduction of biofilm formation on the membrane surface. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an excellent process to generate clean energy from sea water and the biofouling of membrane is reduced by introduction of GO into the active layer of the TFC membrane. Different modifications on the membranes are being researched, each modification with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this review, modifications of nanofiltration membranes and their composites, characterization, and performances are discussed.

• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.67
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• pp.52-71
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• 2018

RO membranes, the core elements for RO process formed using polyamide, have found prominent space in membrane technology. RO membranes with better application perspective could be achieved by precise controlling the kinetics of IP reaction and surface modification strategy. Despite huge progresses, great challenges still exist in trade-off between flux, rejections and fouling. More works are necessary to enhance the performance and stability of RO membranes via surface modification. Further insights into the use of natural monomers are necessary. It is anticipated that this article can provide clues for further in-depth evaluation and research in exploring more advanced RO membranes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.481-488
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• 2012

The anionic exchange polymer, poly(vinyl amine)(PVAm), was coated onto polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes by using 'salting-out' method. The effects of the fouling phenomena for these PVAm coated membranes were investigated using the model foulants, bovine serum albumin (BSA), humic acid (HA), and sodium alginate (SA). The surface coating and the fouling phenomena were observed by the scanning electron microscopy. And the flux was measured for each 100 ppm of above foulant aqueous solution at the operating pressure, 2, 4, 8 bar. The PVAm-coated PA membranes showed somewhat fouling improvements and the fouling reduction was shown in the order of HA > SA > BSA, particularly HA case was distinct.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2014

The composite membranes were prepared on the surface of hydrophobic porous poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes through the interfacial polymerization. The preparation variables were the concentrations of piperazine (PIP), trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and the contents of polyethylene glyco l (PEG). The separation characterization of the resulting membranes were carried out for aqueous 100 ppm solution of NaCl, $CaSO_4$, and $MgCl_2$ and also mixed 300 ppm solution of NaCl and $CaSO_4$ in terms of the flux and rejection. Both the flux and rejection were the highest when the interfacial polymerization was conducted using TMC. When TMC concentration was 0.1 wt%, the flux and rejection were shown 48.3 LMH ($L/m^2{\cdot}hr$) and 59%, respectively. To improve the flux, the annealing post-treatment and the addition of PEG into piperazine were done. As expected, the overall flux was enhanced while the rejection was reduced.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.563-567
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• 1999

Reverse osmosis concentration for cephalosproin C was studied using a polyamide composite membrane, FT-30 in spiral wound type with high solute rejection. The experiments were carried out in the aqueous solution of cephalosporin C for water flux, solute rejection and mass transfer coefficient under applied pressure of $4{\sim}20kg/cm^2$, feed concentration of 100~1000 mg/L and feed velocity of 2.8 and 5.6 L/min at room temperature. The effect of operating pressure on the separation of cephalosporin C showed that permeate flux increased with increasing operation pressure. These results are consistent with those predicted by Kedem-Katchalsky model. Solute rejection was nearly 1. The increase of feed concentration caused the reduction of cephalosporin C rejection, which was higher at low concentration than at high concentration, but degree of reduction was small.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3348-3354
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• 2011

Oleanolic acid (OA) as template molecule, polyamide-6 (PA6) as basement membrane and poly(styrene-comaleic acid) (PSMA) were used to prepare PA6/PSMA-OA molecularly imprinted composite membranes by phase inversion method in supercritical $CO_2$ ($ScCO_2$). The template molecule (OA), [poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (PSMAH), PSMA, molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) imprinting OA and MIMs after elution were all characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The conditions that were the mass ratio between PSMA and OA from 3:1 to 8:1, temperature of $ScCO_2$ from $35^{\circ}C$ to $50^{\circ}C$ and pressure of $ScCO_2$ 12 MPa to 17 MPa were studied. It was obtained the largest adsorption rate and purity of OA after adsorption of the resultant MIMs, 50.41% and 96.15% respectively. After using PA6 film and non-woven fabrics as basement membrane respectively, it was found that smaller aperture of PA6 was used as basement membrane, a higher adsorption rate and a higher purity of OA after adsorption of the MIMs were obtained, and so were the stability and reproducibility of the resultant MIMs. After template molecules being removed, the MIMs had effective selectivity hydrogen bonding to separately bind in the binary components to the template molecules-oleanolic acid.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.329-338
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• 2017

Nanofiltration (NF) technology is a membrane-based separation process, which has been pervasively used as the high-effective technology for drinking water treatment. In this study, a kind of composite polyamide NF thin film is selected to investigate the removal efficiencies and mechanisms of 14 trace drugs, which are commonly and frequently detected in the drinking water. The results show that the removal efficiencies of most drugs are quite high, indicating the NF is an effective technology to improve the quality of drinking water. The removal efficiencies of carbamazepine, acetaminophen, estradiol, antipyrine and isopropyl-antipyrine in ultrapure water are $78.8{\pm}0.8%$, $16.4{\pm}0.5%$, $65.4{\pm}1.8%$, $71.1{\pm}1.5%$ and $89.8{\pm}0.38%$, respectively. Their rejection rates increase with the increasing of their three-dimensional sizes, which indicates that the steric exclusion plays a significant role in removal of these five drugs. The adsorption of estradiol with the strongest hydrophobicity has been studied, which indicates that adsorption is not negligible in terms of removing this kind of hydrophobic neutral drugs by NF technology. The removal efficiencies of indomethacin, diclofenac, naproxen, ketoprofen, ibuprofen, clofibric acid, sulfamethoxazole, amoxicillin and bezafibrate in ultrapure water are $81{\pm}0.3%$, $86.3{\pm}0.5%$, $85.7{\pm}0.4%$, $93.3{\pm}0.3%$, $86.6{\pm}2.5%$, $90.6{\pm}0.4%$, $59.7{\pm}1.7%$, $80.3{\pm}1.4%$ and $80{\pm}0.5%$, respectively. For these nine drugs, their rejection rates are better than the above five drugs because they are negatively charged in ultrapure water. Meanwhile, the membrane surface presents the negative charge. Therefore, both electrostatic repulsion and steric exclusion are indispensable in removing these negatively charged drugs. This study provides helpful and scientific support of a highly effective water treatment method for removing drugs pollutants from drinking water.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 1998

To treat effectively EDIR (electrodeposition ion removal) wastewater in terms of CO$_{Mn}$ 1,500~2,000 ppm generated from aluminum painting process, a RO (reverse osmosis) process was designed and installed to recover and reuse the concentrated solvent sent back to the electrocodeposition tank while the permeate reused as rinse water. A RO system in which three polyamide-spiral wound modules ($102\Phi \times 1,016L$ mm) connnected in series had been running to treat 20 m$^3$ in waste volume in 3 days batch operation at the condition of system recovery of 30 %, applied pressure 11.5 $kg_f/cm^2$ and room temperature. During 42 hours continuous operation leading to 5-fold decrease in waste volume, nearly constant permeation flux of 390 l/m$^2$-hr was maintained and the permeate with average CO$_{Mn}$, 300 ppm was obtained which could be used for washing the remaining paint solution in ion-exchange tower instead of demineralized water. Also COD$_{Mn}$ rejection as a function of running time was observed to be in the range of 78~87 % and the observed solvent rejections for ethyl cellusolve, buthyl cellusolve and n-butanol were 79 %, 87 % and 70 %, respectively.