Pure water is becoming less available with increases in world population, so seawater desalination is becoming more important. For efficient seawater desalination, this paper proposes a novel mixed matrix membrane (MMM) based on the deposition of a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibrous active layer on a 3‐triethoxysilylpropylamine‐functionalized cellulose acetate substrate. The active layer is fabricated by utilizing a tetraethyl orthosilicate–crosslinked PVA incorporating zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO‐NPs) and sodium alginate (NaAlg). The overall reverse osmosis performance of the MMMs is enhanced by the infusion of ZnO‐NPs and NaAlg in PVA; we find the optimum concentration for the best performance to be ZnO‐NPs at 0.1 wt % and NaAlg at 0.01 wt %. In terms of permeation flux, salt rejection, salt passage, stability, long‐term rejection, membrane antifouling, reusability, and chlorine resistance, the proposed MMMs are examined using a dead‐end reverse osmosis filtration setup. The results show that the active layer achieves an optimal permeation flux of 34.6 L/m2 h, a natural sea salt rejection of 97%, and a chlorine resistance of 93%, suggesting that the proposed MMMs can be useful for seawater desalination. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019, 136, 47559.

Fresh and clean water is consistently depleting and becoming a serious problem with rapid increases in population, so seawater desalination technology has captured global attention. For an efficient desalination process, this work proposes a novel, nanofibrous, thin-film composite membrane (NF-TFC) based on the deposition of the nanofibrous active layer of a blend of chitosan (CS) and poly (vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) crosslinked with maleic acid on a 3-triethoxysilylpropylamine functionalized cellulose acetate substrate. FTIR analysis demonstrated the development of chemical and physical interactions and confirmed the incorporation of functional groups present in the NF-TFC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs depict the fibrous structure of the active layers. The reverse osmosis (RO) desalination characteristics of NF-TFC membranes are elevated by increasing the concentration of the crosslinker in a CS/PVP blend. Cellulose acetate (CA)-S4 attained an optimal salt rejection of 98.3% and permeation flux of 42.9 L/m2h, suggesting that the NF-TFC membranes could be favorable for seawater desalination.

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