The stabilization of ultrafiltration membrane blended with randomly structured amphiphilic copolymer: Micropollutants adsorption properties in filtration processes.

In this study, a blend membrane consisting of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and tertiary amine containing random copolymer poly(methyl methacrylate-r-dimethylamino-2-ethyl methacrylate) (P(MMA-r-DMAEMA)) was fabricated and utilized as an adsorptive membrane for micropollutants (anionic dye and heavy metal ions) removal from aqueous solutions. Cross-linking the random copolymer by p-xylylene dichloride (XDC) produced the membrane with improved copolymer retention ratio and stability, while slightly variated physicochemical properties. Besides, the fluxes of crosslinked blend membranes dramatically increased from 0.

Nanofiltration for drinking water treatment: a review.

In recent decades, nanofiltration (NF) is considered as a promising separation technique to produce drinking water from different types of water source. In this paper, we comprehensively reviewed the progress of NF-based drinking water treatment, through summarizing the development of materials/fabrication and applications of NF membranes in various scenarios including surface water treatment, groundwater treatment, water reuse, brackish water treatment, and point of use applications. We not only summarized the removal of target major pollutants (e.

Hollow nanosphere construction of covalent organic frameworks for catalysis: (Pd/C)@TpPa COFs in Suzuki coupling reaction.

A novel catalyst with a yolk-shell structure was designed to overcome the leaching of noble metals in heterogeneous catalysis. Through a template method, palladium (Pd) nanoparticles were encapsulated by hollow spherical covalent organic frameworks (COFs) consisting of 2,4,6-trihydroxybenzene-1,3,5-tricarbaldehyde (Tp) and p-phenylenediamine (Pa). The final catalyst with a yolk-shell structure was denoted as (Pd/C)@TpPa COFs.

Dissecting the Role of Substrate on the Morphology and Separation Properties of Thin Film Composite Polyamide Membranes: Seeing Is Believing.

Recent studies show that the surface morphology of a thin film composite (TFC) polyamide membrane depends strongly on its porous substrate. Nevertheless, the underlining mechanisms and the effects on membrane separation performance remain controversial. To dissect the exact role of pore properties, we synthesized TFC polyamide membranes on polycarbonate substrates with cylindrical track-etched pores (PCTE) of well-defined pore size ranging from 10 to 800 nm.

Tailoring Polyamide Rejection Layer with Aqueous Carbonate Chemistry for Enhanced Membrane Separation: Mechanistic Insights, Chemistry-Structure-Property Relationship, and Environmental Implications.

Surface roughness and the associated nanosized voids inside the roughness structures have great influence on the separation performance of thin film composite polyamide reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Inspired by the recent findings that these voids are formed due to the degassing of CO nanobubbles during interfacial polymerization, we systematically investigated the role of carbonate chemistry, particularly the solubility of CO, in the aqueous -phenylenediamine (MPD) solution for the first time. "Ridge-and-valley" roughness features were obtained when the pH of the MPD solution was between the two acidity constants of the carbonate system (i.

One-step tailoring surface roughness and surface chemistry to prepare superhydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes for enhanced membrane distillation performances.

Superhydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane is a promising material for membrane distillation. Existing approaches for preparing superhydrophobic PVDF membrane often involve separate manipulation of surface roughness and surface chemistry. Here we report a one-step approach to simultaneously manipulate both the surface roughness and surface chemistry of PVDF nanofibrous membranes for enhanced direct-contact membrane distillation (DCMD) performances.

Highly permeable and highly selective ultrathin film composite polyamide membranes reinforced by reactable polymer chains.

This study reports highly permeable ultrathin film composite (uTFC) membranes whose rejection layer was reinforced by polymer chains during the interfacial polymerization of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD) to achieve enhanced salt rejection. A rejection layer of approximately 20 nm was formed at an MPD concentration of 0.01 wt%.

Hydrophilic Silver Nanoparticles Induce Selective Nanochannels in Thin Film Nanocomposite Polyamide Membranes.

Thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes have been widely studied over the past decade for their desalination applications. For some cases, the incorporation of nonporous hydrophilic nanofillers has been reported to greatly enhance membrane separation performance, yet the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. The current study systematically investigates TFN membranes incorporated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs).

Non-Polyamide Based Nanofiltration Membranes Using Green Metal-Organic Coordination Complexes: Implications for the Removal of Trace Organic Contaminants.

Polyamide-based thin film composite (TFC) membranes are generally optimized for salt rejection but not for the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). The insufficient rejection of TrOCs such as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) by polyamide membranes can jeopardize product water safety in wastewater reclamation. In this study, we report a novel nonpolyamide membrane chemistry using green tannic acid-iron (TA-Fe) complexes to remove TrOCs.

Tuning roughness features of thin film composite polyamide membranes for simultaneously enhanced permeability, selectivity and anti-fouling performance.

Thin film composite (TFC) polyamide membranes set the golden standard for reverse osmosis technology, but tuning their permeability and selectivity remains a major challenge because of the inherent permeability-selectivity trade-off. Creating nano-sized voids within the polyamide rejection layer can tune the membrane roughness and increase its effective filtration area to improve the water permeability. Here we prepare nano-foamed polyamide rejection layers by adding sodium bicarbonate into the aqueous solution of amine monomers.

Fast polydopamine coating on reverse osmosis membrane: Process investigation and membrane performance study.

We report a novel membrane surface modification method using a fast polydopamine coating (fPDAc) strategy. Specifically, NaIO was introduced in the coating process to accelerate the polydopamine deposition rate. Surface properties and separation performances of fPDAc-coated reverse osmosis membranes were characterized and compared to those obtained using the conventional slow polydopamine coating (sPDAc) strategy.

Tannic Acid/Fe Nanoscaffold for Interfacial Polymerization: Toward Enhanced Nanofiltration Performance.

Conventional thin-film composite (TFC) membranes suffer from the trade-off relationship between permeability and selectivity, known as the "upper bound". In this work, we report a high performance thin-film composite membrane prepared on a tannic acid (TA)-Fe nanoscaffold (TFC) to overcome such upper bound. Specifically, a TA-Fe nanoscaffold was first coated onto a polysulfone substrate, followed by performing an interfacial polymerization reaction between trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and piperazine (PIP).

A One-Step Rapid Assembly of Thin Film Coating Using Green Coordination Complexes for Enhanced Removal of Trace Organic Contaminants by Membranes.

We report a fast, simple, and green coating method using the coordination complex of tannic acid (TA) and ferric ion (Fe) to enhance the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) by polyamide membranes. The entire coating process can be completed in less than 2 min; quartz crystal microbalance characterization revealed that a TA-Fe thin film formed in merely 10-20 s. Coating this TA-Fe thin film on a commercial nanofiltration membrane (NF270) reduced its effective pore size from 0.

A highly selective surface coating for enhanced membrane rejection of endocrine disrupting compounds: Mechanistic insights and implications.

We designed a highly selective surface coating to achieve enhanced rejection of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) by nanofiltration membranes. A commercial NF90 membrane was first coated with polydopamine (PDA) followed by in situ immobilization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). This PDA/AgNPs coating greatly improved EDC rejection at the expense of slight water permeability loss (4-10%).

Composition and properties of porous blend membranes containing tertiary amine based amphiphilic copolymers with different sequence structures.

Four tertiary amine based amphiphilic copolymers with similar composition but different sequence structures in terms of diblock (Poly(dimethylamino-2-ethyl methacrylate-b-methyl methacrylate) (P(MMA-b-DMAEMA))), triblock (P(DMAEMA-b-MMA-b-DMAEMA)), four-armed diblock (P(MMA-b-DMAEMA)4) and random (P(MMA-r-DMAEMA)) were synthesized and used for fabricating functional porous membranes by blending method. The retention ratios and surface enrichment ratios of the copolymers in blend membranes were determined by hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The composition of the formed membranes was investigated and the durability was experimentally tested.