Effect of Polyethylene Glycol Additive on the Structure and Performance of Fabric-Reinforced Thin Film Composite

Fabric-reinforced thin film composite (TFC) membranes exhibit outstanding mechanical durability over free-standing membranes for commercial applications. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was incorporated to modify the polysulfone (PSU) supported fabric-reinforced TFC membrane for forward osm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-03, Vol.28 (5), p.2318
Main Authors: Wang, Xiao, Zhao, Yuntao, Wen, Xueyou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contact angle
Deionization
Dielectric films
Durability
fabric
Fabrics
Fibrous composites
forward osmosis
Graphene
Material properties
Materials
Mechanical properties
Membrane separation
Membranes
Membranes (Technology)
Molecular structure
Molecular weight
Nanomaterials
Nonwoven fabrics
Osmosis
Permeability
Polyamines
Polyethylene glycol
polysulfone
Pore size
Quantum dots
Sodium chloride
Solvents
Structure
thin film composite
Thin films
Viscosity
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Summary:Fabric-reinforced thin film composite (TFC) membranes exhibit outstanding mechanical durability over free-standing membranes for commercial applications. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was incorporated to modify the polysulfone (PSU) supported fabric-reinforced TFC membrane for forward osmosis (FO). The effects of PEG content and molecular weight on the structure, material property and FO performance of the membrane were investigated comprehensively, and the corresponding mechanisms were revealed. The membrane prepared by using 400 g/mol PEG exhibited better FO performances than those of membranes with 1000 and 2000 g/mol PEG, and 20 wt.% was demonstrated to be the optimal PEG content in the casting solution. The permselectivity of the membrane was further improved by reducing the PSU concentration. The optimal TFC-FO membrane had a water flux (Jw) of 25.0 LMH using deionized (DI) water feed and 1 M NaCl draw solution, and the specific reverse salt flux (Js/Jw) was as low as 0.12 g/L. The degree of internal concentration polarization (ICP) was significantly mitigated. The membrane behaved superior to the commercially available fabric-reinforced membranes. This work provides a simple and low-cost approach in the development TFC-FO membrane and shows great potential in the large-scale production for practical applications.
ISSN:1420-3049
1420-3049
DOI:10.3390/molecules28052318