Synthesis and characterization of PVC‐TFC hollow fibers for forward osmosis application

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) is considered among the most encouraging water desalination processes as a result of its high performance and low energy demand. Thin‐film composite (TFC) hollow fibers (HF) were synthesized and examined in the FO process. Three different concentrations of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) support polymer were fabricated via the phase inversion technique. The polyamide layer was synthesized on the outer surface of the PVC‐HF substrate via interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction. To the best of our knowledge, PVC HF was used in this research for the first time as a support for TFC‐FO membranes. PVC HFs have high‐quality specifications that are expected to have outstanding performance in TFC‐FO applications, especially for water desalination. The obtained membranes were characterized using contact angle measurement, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscope and Fourier‐transform Infrared. The performance of the PVC‐TFC HF was examined in the FO under standard conditions. Results showed that the membrane fabricated with a lower concentration of PVC substrate exhibited higher water flux in comparison to the higher concentration PVC membrane. Changing the concentration of PVC from 15% to 18% reduced water flux from 25 to 13 L m−2 h−1; however, salt flux also decreased from 8 to 3 g m−2 h−1.

The Effect of Organic Matter on Heavy Metals Removal from Simulated Wastewater using a Reverse Osmosis Membrane Process

“…In addition, the osmotic pressure ( Π ) of the solution could be computed by utilizing the Van′t Hoff equation as described in Eq. 4 [29] $$$\vcenter{\openup.5em\halign{$\displaystyle{#}$\cr {\Pi}\ (bar)=iCRT\hfill\cr}}$$$ …”

“…( 4). [29] P ðbarÞ ¼ iCRT (4) where i is the ionic dissociation number, C is the ion concentration (mole/L), R is the ideal gas constant (L. bar/K. mole), and T is the absolute temperature (K).…”

Forward Osmosis Membrane: Review of Fabrication, Modification, Challenges and Potential

“…Flow rate plays a significant role in water flux [26], reverse solute flux (RSF) [140], and membrane fouling [143] through its effect on the mass transfer mechanism. Typically, the mass transfer coefficient is enhanced with increasing flow rate, which decreases external CP (ECP) and thus improves water flux [25,144].…”

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

“…The support membrane with high permeability is beneficial to improve the water flux of the FO composite membrane. Currently, the main porous substrate materials used for the FO composite membrane are polyethersulfone (PES), 14 polysulfone (PSF), 15 polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) 16,17 and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) 8 as well as several other polymer materials such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), 18 reduced aliphatic polyketone (rPK) 19 and cellulose acetate (CA). 20 Incorporating hydrophilic particles such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ), 14 nano titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), 20 quaternized poly phenylene oxide (QPPO), 21 graphene oxide quantum dots 22 and carbon nanomaterial (CNM) 23 into the support membrane can effectively increase membrane porosity and permeability.…”

“…At present, most of the FO membranes are thin film composite (TFC) membranes which are obtained through the interfacial polymerization (IP) of diamine and polyacyl chloride on the surface of a porous support membrane. 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.…”