Improvement of performance of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes using dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment as a novel surface modification method

Abstract

In this research, surface modification of aromatic polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes was carried out using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment to improve the performance and fouling resistance of prepared RO membranes. First, polyamide TFC RO membranes were synthesized via interfacial polymerization of m‐phenylenediamine and trimesoyl chloride monomers over microporous polysulfone support membrane. Next, the DBD plasma treatment with 15 s, 30 s, 60 s, and 90 s duration was used for surface modification. The surface properties of RO membranes were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐FTIR), SEM, AFM, and contact angle measurements. The ATR‐FTIR results indicated that DBD plasma treatment caused hydrogen bonding on the surface of RO membranes. Also, the contact angle measurement showed that the hydrophilicity of the membranes was increased due to DBD plasma treatment. The changes in the membranes surface morphology indicated that the surface roughness of the membranes was increased after surface modification. In addition, it was found that the DBD plasma treatment increased the water permeation flux significantly and enhanced sodium chloride (NaCl) salt rejection slightly. Moreover, the filtration of bovine serum albumin revealed that the antifouling properties of the modified membranes had been improved. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:E468–E475, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers

Improvement of performance and fouling resistance of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes using acrylamide and TiO2 nanoparticles under UV irradiation for water desalination

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Comparative study of hydrophilic modification of polyacrylonitrile membranes by nitrogen and carbon dioxide RF plasma

“…As shown in Fig. c and d, there is no significant improvement of the surface energy of carbon dioxide plasma modified membrane compared to the unmodified one after 100 days of aging . It can be observed from Fig.…”

“…Plasma treatment increased the surface energy of PAN by increasing their polar components. Bombardment by plasma species creates free radicals on the polymer surface mainly by chain scission and hydrogen abstraction which subsequently combines with oxygen from air thereby increasing the polarity . Besides the polar groups created at the surface during reactive plasma treatment, it altered surface morphology also .…”

Enhanced chlorine‐resistant and low biofouling reverse osmosis polyimide‐graphene oxide thin film nanocomposite membranes for water desalination

“…A more successful commercially available RO membrane is thin film composite (TFC) polyamide membrane for water purification and desalination. [2][3][4] Actually, much work has been developed using TFC polyamide membranes due to their high mechanical, thermal, and hydrolytic stabilities. [5,6] However, these previous works concluded that aromatic polyamide membranes still have inherent weaknesses such as limited oxidant tolerance (due to the presence of electron-rich aromatic rings and secondary amides), minimal fouling resistance, and low chemical and thermal stabilities.…”