Feasibility of using polycarbonate as a substrate of thin film composite membrane in forward osmosis

Abstract

In the present study, thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes with polycarbonate (PC (and polyether sulfone (PES) as substrates were fabricated to investigate the impact of the structural parameters of substrate on the performance of the membranes. Firstly, the substrates were prepared by Loeb‐Sourirajan method. Characterization techniques including FESEM, contact angle measurement, pure water flux, gas permeability test, and tensile test were applied to investigate the properties of the substrates. After preparing suitable substrates, active layers were fabricated via interfacial polymerization (IP) technique. The performance and characterization test showed that PC is a relatively hydrophilic polymer with a good property for using as a substrate of FO TFC membrane but as the result of gas permeability test show, this membrane has large surface pore size in comparison with PES membrane. Mean pore size of PC and PES membrane is 378 and 139 nm, respectively. Also, the results show that the effective surface porosity of PC (285, 1/m) is more than PES (213, 1/m) substrate.

Development of Support Layers and Their Impact on the Performance of Thin Film Composite Membranes (TFC) for Water Treatment

“…The use of multiple conversion techniques should se feasible resolution, whereby the limitations of each phase inversion method can b PSf, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyethersulfone (PES), polyimide (PI), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and cellulose derivatives are commonly used as the substrate membrane polymer for TFC membranes. Moreover, polycarbonate (PC) was used as a substrate for FO TFC membranes by Alihemati et al [49], which has been reported in only a few studies. This innovative approach demonstrated the potential for expanding the range of possibilities for TFC membrane preparation by exploring less commonly used substrate materials.…”

Construction of facilitated mass transfer composite membranes with triple-layer water nanochannel architecture for forward osmosis process using cGO-coated polysulfone separation membrane as the substrate

“…7,8 Compared with the homogeneous membrane, the composite membrane can improve the FO permselectivity performance by designing and optimizing the structure of the substrate and the TFC layer, respectively. Many efforts have been made through the blending of various nanoparticles including graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, 9 UiO-66 metal-organic frameworks, 10 PIP (piperazine)-functionalized ZnO (PZnO) nanoparticles, 11 silver phosphate-loaded acidified graphitic carbon nitride (aCN/ AP) 12 and silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) 13 into the TFC layer to improve the water flux, chlorine resistance and anti-fouling properties of the FO composite membrane. The GOincorporated thin-film nanocomposite-FO (TFN-FO) membrane showed 41% enhancement in water flux (13.9 kg m −2 h −1 ) and high salt rejection even at 48 000 ppm chlorination.…”

“…Fig 13. The mechanism of the facilitated mass transfer through the cGO-coated FO composite membrane.…”