Solvent resistant thin film composite nanofiltration membrane: Characterization and permeation study

The present investigation reports the fabrication of thin film composite nanofiltration (TFC-NF) membranes using interfacial polymerization technique for desalination. Ethylene diamine (EDA) and terephthaloyl chloride (TPC) were employed as aqueous and organic phase monomers, respectively to develop polyamide thin layer on the surface of Celgard 2400. The prepared membranes were characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The molecular weight cutoff of TFC-NF membranes was estimated to be below 342 Da using dextrose, sucrose and raffinose solutions. A low cost dead end NF Cell was designed and manufactured domestically to conduct permeation experiments. The effect of different reaction conditions including concentration of monomers, residence time in each monomer and curing temperature on the membrane performance (water flux and MgCl2 rejection) was also studied. The water flux was augmented linearly at higher applied pressure while MgCl2 rejection was remained constant. The obtained water flux and MgCl2 rejection were measured 33 L/m2 h and 90%, respectively at 7 bar applied pressure. Beside this, membrane stability was analyzed, which confirmed the excellent constancy of ethanol and n-hexane fluxes even after an extended period. Hagen–Poiseuille equation was applied to estimate the TFC-NF membrane pore size ∼0.45 nm.