TY - JOUR
T1 - High-performance and durable pressure retarded osmosis membranes fabricated using hydrophilized polyethylene separators
AU - Kwon, Soon Jin
AU - Park, Kiho
AU - Kim, Dal Yong
AU - Zhan, Min
AU - Hong, Seungkwan
AU - Lee, Jung Hyun
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government ( 2019R1A2C1002333 , 2019M3E6A1064103 and 2018R1A4A1022194 ).
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - A high-performance and durable thin-film composite (TFC) pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) membrane was fabricated using a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-coated polyethylene (PAPE) support via toluene-assisted interfacial polymerization (TIP). The PVA coating uniformly hydrophilized the extremely thin (~8 μm) polyethylene (PE) support with a highly porous structure while marginally deforming the support structure, resulting in a very low structural parameter (~235 μm). The TIP process produced a polyamide selective layer with remarkably higher water permeability (~8.78 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) than those of commercial HTI membranes (0.56–1.40 L m−2 h−1 bar−1). Furthermore, despite its extreme thinness, the PAPE-supported TFC (PAPE-TFC) membrane had higher mechanical properties than the commercial membranes owing to the superior mechanical strength of its PE support. Hence, the PAPE-TFC membrane achieved an unprecedentedly high power density of ~35.7 W m−2 at an applied pressure of 20 bar using a deionized water feed solution and a 1.0 M NaCl draw solution, which significantly outperformed commercial and any other reported lab-made PRO membranes. The mechanically robust PAPE-TFC membrane also enabled stable long-term PRO operation under high pressure conditions.
AB - A high-performance and durable thin-film composite (TFC) pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) membrane was fabricated using a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-coated polyethylene (PAPE) support via toluene-assisted interfacial polymerization (TIP). The PVA coating uniformly hydrophilized the extremely thin (~8 μm) polyethylene (PE) support with a highly porous structure while marginally deforming the support structure, resulting in a very low structural parameter (~235 μm). The TIP process produced a polyamide selective layer with remarkably higher water permeability (~8.78 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) than those of commercial HTI membranes (0.56–1.40 L m−2 h−1 bar−1). Furthermore, despite its extreme thinness, the PAPE-supported TFC (PAPE-TFC) membrane had higher mechanical properties than the commercial membranes owing to the superior mechanical strength of its PE support. Hence, the PAPE-TFC membrane achieved an unprecedentedly high power density of ~35.7 W m−2 at an applied pressure of 20 bar using a deionized water feed solution and a 1.0 M NaCl draw solution, which significantly outperformed commercial and any other reported lab-made PRO membranes. The mechanically robust PAPE-TFC membrane also enabled stable long-term PRO operation under high pressure conditions.
KW - Interfacial polymerization
KW - Polyethylene
KW - Polyvinyl alcohol
KW - Pressure retarded osmosis
KW - Thin-film composite membrane
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U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118796
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2020.118796
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092511139
VL - 619
JO - Jornal of Membrane Science
JF - Jornal of Membrane Science
SN - 0376-7388
M1 - 118796
ER -