Correlating the Diffusion of Water to Performance in Model Reverse Osmosis Polyamides with Controlled Crosslink Densities.

ABSTRACT: We systematically reduce the cross-link density of a PA network based on m-phenylene diamine by substituting a fraction of the trifunctional trimesoyl chloride cross-linking agent with a difunctional isophthaloyl analog that promotes chain extension, in order to elucidate robust design cues for improving the polyamide (PA) separation layer in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for desalination. Thin films of these model PA networks are fully integrated into a composite membrane and evaluated in terms of their water flux and salt rejection. By incorporating 15 mol % of the difunctional chain extender, we reduce the cross-link density of the network by a factor of two, which leads to an 80 % increase in the free or unreacted amine content. The resulting swelling of the PA network in liquid water

SUBMITTER: Witherspoon VJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10350966 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature