Preparation and Characterization of a Novel Polyamide Charged Mosaic Membrane

A novel composite charged mosaic membrane(CCMM) was prepared via interfacial polymerization(IP) of polyamine[poly(epichlorohydrin amine) ]and trimesoyl chloride(TMC) on the polyethersulfone(PES) support. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR) ,environmental scanning electron microscopy(ESEM) ,atomic force microscopy(AFM) and water contact angle analysis were applied to characterize the resulted CCMM.The FT-IR spectrum indicates that TMC reacts sufficiently with polyamine.ESEM and AFM pictures show that the IP process produces a dense selective layer on the support membrane.The water contact angle of the CCMM is smaller than that of the substrate membrane because of the cross-linked hydrophilic polyamine network.Several factors affecting the IP reaction and the performance of the CCMM,such as monomer concentration,reaction time,pH value of aqueous phase solution and post-treatment,were studied.The pure water flux of the optimized CCMM is 14.73 L·m -2 ·h -1 ·MPa -1 at the operating pressure of 0.4 MPa.The values of separation factorαfor NaCl/PEG1000/water and MgCl2/PEG1000/water are 11.89 and 9.96,respectively.These results demonstrate that CCMM is promising for the separation of low-molecular-weight organics from their salt aqueous solutions.

Membrane Potentials Across Hybrid Charged Mosaic Membrane in Organic Solutions

Membrane potentials across hybrid charged mosaic membrane in organic solutions were measured. Equilibrium swelling degree （SD） and fixed charge density in both organic solutions and water were also determined. Ethylene glycol, ethanol, n-propanol and glycerol were used as organic solutes; meanwhile 0.001mol-dm^-3 aqueous KCl solution was utilized as a strong electrolyte to measure the electrical difference. Equilibrium swelling degree indicated that it could be affected by the density of organic solutes; while it enhanced with the increasing density of these solutes. The measurement of fixed charge density showed that the membrane had the maximal absolute value in water among these solvents whether for cationic or anionic groups; the difference of dielectric constant between the water and the organic solutes might be responsible for these change trends. It was confirmed that membrane potentials increased with both the increasing concentration of the organic solutions and the elevated pH values. These results demonstrated that the characteristics of the hybrid charged mosaic membrane could be highly impacted by the properties of the organic solutes. A theoretical modal for charged membranes in ternary ion systems of weak electrolyte can be used to explain the above-mentioned phenomena.

A NOVEL METHOD FOR FABRICATING COMPOSITE MOSAIC MEMBRANE WITH UNIQUE NF SELECTIVITY

A novel method of fabricating composite mosaic membranes was studied on the basis of interracial polymerization （IP） by coating a thin selective layer onto the surface of a micro-porous hollow-fiber membrane, in which, 2,5-diaminobenzene sulfonic acid was used as one monomer of the IP reaction, and a mixture of trimesoyl chloride （TMCI） and 4-（chloromethyl） benzoyl chloride as the other monomer. Through the IP reaction a thin selective layer with negatively charged groups could be first formed on the polyethersulfone （PES） support membrane. Then trimethylamine solution was introduced to modify the IP layer through a quaternization reaction. Thus the selective layer of this composite membrane contained both negatively charged and positively charged groups to perform the mosaic functionality. Characterization of the composite mosaic membranes was carried out through permeation experiments using different inorganic salts and dyes. The experimental results showed that the membranes could permeate both mono- and bi-valent inorganic salts, but reject larger organic molecules. Such a mosaic membrane is potentially useful for the separation of salts from water-soluble organics, especially in dye and textile industries.