Effective Interfacially Polymerized Polyester Solvent Resistant Nanofiltration Membrane from Bioderived Materials

Abstract

Utilization of sustainable and environmentally friendly solvents for the preparation of membranes has attracted growing interest in recent years. In this work, a polyester thin film composite solvent resistant nanofiltration (SRNF) membrane was prepared by interfacial polymerization on a cellulose support. The cellulose support was prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation from a dope solution containing an ionic liquid as an environmentally friendly solvent (negligible vapour pressure). The polyester film was formed via the interfacial reaction between quercetin, a plant-derived polyphenol, and terephthaloyl chloride. Alpha-pinene was used as a green alternative solvent to dissolve TPC while quercetin was dissolved in a 0.2 M NaOH solution. The interfacial polymerization reaction was successfully confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy while scanning electron and atomic fore microscopy were used to characterize the membrane structure. The composite membrane showed an outstanding performance with a molecular weight cutoff around 330 combined with a dimethylformamide (DMF) permeance up to 2.8 L. m-2 bar-1 hr-1. The membrane was stable in strong aprotic solvents such as DMF offering potential application in the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries.

Sustainable Fabrication of Organic Solvent Nanofiltration Membranes

“…There are many works that employed TEP for membrane preparation [ 27 , 51 , 52 ]. It can be applied as both a NIPS and TIPS solvent.…”

“…Abdellah et al [ 51 ] successfully fabricated a polyester TFC OSN membrane on a cellulose substrate that was prepared using IL as the solvent. In addition, the active layer was composed of quercetin (a polyphenol normally found in blueberries, grapefruit, and black tea) crosslinked with terephthaloyl chloride.…”

Silane‐Crosslinked Asymmetric Polythiosemicarbazide Membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

“…The crosslinking reaction is presented in Figure 1. The effect of the duration (6,12,24, and 48 h) of the crosslinking reaction to establish an organosiloxane network in the membrane was studied. After crosslinking, the membranes were washed with ethanol and stored in DI water to avoid any pore collapse.…”

“…Polymeric membranes demonstrate potential advantages over inorganic membranes because of their low fabrication cost. To date, there are numerous reports presenting the use of polymeric membranes as a separation barrier for OSN applications . However, polymeric membranes often undergo flux decline over time due to either polymer chain compaction or swelling of the polymer matrix upon the exposure to the organic solvents .…”

“…To date, there are numerous reports presenting the use of polymeric membranes as a separation barrier for OSN applications. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] However, polymeric membranes often undergo flux decline over time due to either poly mer chain compaction or swelling of the poly mer matrix upon the exposure to the organic solvents. [13] Chemical crosslinking of the polymer chains usually enhances the performance of polymeric membranes for OSN and indeed most of the polymeric membranes used in OSN are post-treated to induce chemical crosslinking.…”