Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal

In this study, the effects of organic solvents, heat treatment methods, postinterfacial polymerization (IP) rinsing (prior to membrane heat treatment) and additives on the properties of thin film composite (TFC) membranes were investigated prior to the fabrication of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) me...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Chong, Chun Yew
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2018
Subjects:	TP Chemical technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79269/1/ChongChunYewMSPS2018.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-utm-ep.79269
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-utm-ep.792692018-10-14T08:41:50Z Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal 2018 Chong, Chun Yew TP Chemical technology In this study, the effects of organic solvents, heat treatment methods, postinterfacial polymerization (IP) rinsing (prior to membrane heat treatment) and additives on the properties of thin film composite (TFC) membranes were investigated prior to the fabrication of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes incorporated with inorganic nanomaterials. It was found that the preservation of substrate pore structures and the removal of excess monomers and organic solvent from the membrane surface are imperative to fabricate reproducible TFC membranes with consistently high water flux and salt rejection. The main findings from investigating the IP parameters are i) keeping the substrate at minimal heat exposure could prevent substrate pore collapse that potentially reduces the membrane water permeability, ii) rinsing membranes with pure n-hexane after IP resulted in membranes having higher pure water flux (PWF) without significantly decreasing solute rejection, iii) the membrane performances became practically the same after post-IP rinsing, regardless of the solvent used in the IP reaction and iv) membranes fabricated using triethylamine-camphorsulfonic acid-sodium dodecyl sulfate (TEA-CSA-SDS) additives exhibited higher PWF and salt rejection than the membranes fabricated in the absence of the additive. For the TFN membranes, it was found that nanomaterial structures (i.e., sizes and shapes) affect the separation performance of the resultant TFN membranes. Noticeably, titanium-based nanomaterial in spindle-like nanoporous structure (f-nTiO2) yielded membrane of better filtration performances than its tubular structure – functionalized titanate nanotube (f-TNT). Compared to TFN-f-TNT membrane, TFN-f-nTiO2 membrane possessed greater water flux (4.26 vs. 3.36 L/m2·h·bar), NaCl (98.04 vs. 97.28%) and boron rejection (54.82 vs. 48.86%). Ultimately, the incorporation of nanomaterial into membrane selective layer was found to improve membrane water flux at the expense of NaCl and boron rejection in comparison to the TFC membranes. Surface coating of TFN membranes with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was found to be effective to recover membrane solute rejection, with slight reduction in water flux. The synergic effect of nanomaterial incorporation and PVA coating resulted in improved membrane water flux without trading off its solute rejection. 2018 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79269/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79269/1/ChongChunYewMSPS2018.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, School of Graduate Studies School of Graduate Studies
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle	TP Chemical technology Chong, Chun Yew Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
description	In this study, the effects of organic solvents, heat treatment methods, postinterfacial polymerization (IP) rinsing (prior to membrane heat treatment) and additives on the properties of thin film composite (TFC) membranes were investigated prior to the fabrication of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes incorporated with inorganic nanomaterials. It was found that the preservation of substrate pore structures and the removal of excess monomers and organic solvent from the membrane surface are imperative to fabricate reproducible TFC membranes with consistently high water flux and salt rejection. The main findings from investigating the IP parameters are i) keeping the substrate at minimal heat exposure could prevent substrate pore collapse that potentially reduces the membrane water permeability, ii) rinsing membranes with pure n-hexane after IP resulted in membranes having higher pure water flux (PWF) without significantly decreasing solute rejection, iii) the membrane performances became practically the same after post-IP rinsing, regardless of the solvent used in the IP reaction and iv) membranes fabricated using triethylamine-camphorsulfonic acid-sodium dodecyl sulfate (TEA-CSA-SDS) additives exhibited higher PWF and salt rejection than the membranes fabricated in the absence of the additive. For the TFN membranes, it was found that nanomaterial structures (i.e., sizes and shapes) affect the separation performance of the resultant TFN membranes. Noticeably, titanium-based nanomaterial in spindle-like nanoporous structure (f-nTiO2) yielded membrane of better filtration performances than its tubular structure – functionalized titanate nanotube (f-TNT). Compared to TFN-f-TNT membrane, TFN-f-nTiO2 membrane possessed greater water flux (4.26 vs. 3.36 L/m2·h·bar), NaCl (98.04 vs. 97.28%) and boron rejection (54.82 vs. 48.86%). Ultimately, the incorporation of nanomaterial into membrane selective layer was found to improve membrane water flux at the expense of NaCl and boron rejection in comparison to the TFC membranes. Surface coating of TFN membranes with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was found to be effective to recover membrane solute rejection, with slight reduction in water flux. The synergic effect of nanomaterial incorporation and PVA coating resulted in improved membrane water flux without trading off its solute rejection.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Chong, Chun Yew
author_facet	Chong, Chun Yew
author_sort	Chong, Chun Yew
title	Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
title_short	Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
title_full	Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
title_fullStr	Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
title_full_unstemmed	Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
title_sort	synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, School of Graduate Studies
granting_department	School of Graduate Studies
publishDate	2018
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/79269/1/ChongChunYewMSPS2018.pdf
_version_	1747818187439734784

Synthesis and characterization of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane for salt and boron removal

Similar Items