TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane thin-film composite membranes for the efficient pervaporative desalination of seawater and brines
AU - Genduso, Giuseppe
AU - Missinne, Anton
AU - Ali, Zain
AU - Ogieglo, Wojciech
AU - Van der Bruggen, Bart
AU - Pinnau, Ingo
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-11-20
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): BAS/1/1323-01-01
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (BAS/1/1323-01-01).
PY - 2021/9/29
Y1 - 2021/9/29
N2 - The pervaporative desalination of synthetic seawater and brines was studied to explore the water flux and salt rejection of a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dip-coated on porous polysulfone support. Despite the hydrophobic nature of rubbery PDMS, we demonstrate that nonporous TFC membranes exhibit remarkable pervaporative desalination performance as evidenced by very high water permeance and 99.8±0.2% NaCl rejection. For comparison, two commercial hydrophilic polyamide thin-film composite membranes designed for reverse osmosis (RO) were also tested in pervaporation mode. At the highest temperature explored (85 °C) the PDMS thin-film composite membrane produced an outstanding pure water flux of ∼70 kg m-2 h-1, which was 2.6 times higher than that of the best commercial RO membrane tested in this work. Although the presence of salt in the feed water reduced water flux to 36 kg m-2 h-1 (at a brine sodium chloride concentration of 70,000 ppm and 85 °C), the hydrophobic PDMS composite membrane performed among the best compared with previously reported hydrophilic TFC polymer membranes.
AB - The pervaporative desalination of synthetic seawater and brines was studied to explore the water flux and salt rejection of a thin-film composite (TFC) membrane made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) dip-coated on porous polysulfone support. Despite the hydrophobic nature of rubbery PDMS, we demonstrate that nonporous TFC membranes exhibit remarkable pervaporative desalination performance as evidenced by very high water permeance and 99.8±0.2% NaCl rejection. For comparison, two commercial hydrophilic polyamide thin-film composite membranes designed for reverse osmosis (RO) were also tested in pervaporation mode. At the highest temperature explored (85 °C) the PDMS thin-film composite membrane produced an outstanding pure water flux of ∼70 kg m-2 h-1, which was 2.6 times higher than that of the best commercial RO membrane tested in this work. Although the presence of salt in the feed water reduced water flux to 36 kg m-2 h-1 (at a brine sodium chloride concentration of 70,000 ppm and 85 °C), the hydrophobic PDMS composite membrane performed among the best compared with previously reported hydrophilic TFC polymer membranes.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/672039
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1383586621015264
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116410388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.seppur.2021.119819
DO - 10.1016/j.seppur.2021.119819
M3 - Article
SN - 1383-5866
VL - 280
SP - 119819
JO - Separation and Purification Technology
JF - Separation and Purification Technology
ER -