Hydrophobic interpenetrating polyamide-PDMS membranes for desalination, pesticides removal and enhanced chlorine tolerance

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2020-11, Vol.258, p.127179-127179, Article 127179
• Main Authors: Khairkar, Shyam R., Pansare, Amol V., Shedge, Amol A., Chhatre, Shraddha Y., Suresh, A.K., Chakrabarti, Subhananda, Patil, Vishwanath R., Nagarkar, Amit A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane); Pesticide rejection; Salt rejection; Water purification membranes
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127179

Hydrophobic membranes for desalination and toxic organic pollutant removal have been fabricated using polyamide – PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) chemistries in a one-step protocol. The curing of polyamide and PDMS are orthogonal and co-curing both networks imparts hydrophobicity to the thin film composite membranes. The membranes exhibit increased adsorption of pesticides from the feed water along with maintaining excellent salt rejection capability (97% NaCl rejection), thus giving the membranes a multifunctional character. Three toxic pesticides have been used in this study to demonstrate the viability of combining osmosis desalination technology with organic matter adsorption. The membranes also show excellent resistance to fouling by toxic pesticides (85% salt rejection vs 67% for commercial membranes in the presence of pesticides) and significantly improved chlorine tolerance (93.8% salt rejection vs 86.5% for commercial membranes after 20 h of exposure to sodium hypochlorite solution). [Display omitted] •Polyamide – PDMS membranes for pesticide rejection during RO water purification.•Excellent resistance to fouling by toxic pesticides.•Improvement in chlorine tolerance.