Evaluating the charge of nanofiltration membranes

In this study, several methods were used to determine the charge of commercially available nanofiltration membranes, and were compared. First the ion-exchange capacity was determined by titration, this method is able to distinguish between positively and negatively charged functional groups on the membrane. Secondly, measurements of the streaming potential gave a value for the charge density at the exterior membrane surface; the effect of the pH of the solution on the membrane charge was studied. Finally, measurements of the membrane potential allowed to evaluate the total membrane charge density.The results of the three methods were used to compare the membrane charge of nanofiltration membranes mainly in a qualitative way. It is shown that measurements of the membrane potential are preferred for the evaluation of the membrane charge.     

Nanofiltration membranes synthesized from hyperbranched polyethyleneimine

Four nanofiltration membranes, two negatively and two positively charged, were fabricated by interfacial polymerization. Three different amines, ethylenediamine (EDA), diethylenetriamine (DETA), and hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (PEI) were selected to react with two acyl chlorides, trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and terephthaloyl chloride (TPC). The two membranes containing hyperbranched PEI, PEI/TPC and PEI/TMC, are positively charged at the operational pH. But the other two membranes, EDA/TMC and DETA/TMC, are negatively charged. It is found that the two PEI membranes own special rejection characters during nanofiltration. The PEI/TPC membrane has a similar pore size to the EDA/TMC membrane but owns simultaneously the higher salt rejection and permeation flux. The PEI/TMC has a pore size as large as 1.5 nm and still has a higher NaCl rejection than the EDA/TMC membrane of which the pore size as small as 0.43 nm. We consider that the special rejection characters are derived from the special structure of PEI. The hyperbranched structure allows some of the charged amine groups drifting inside the pores and interacting with the ions in the pathway. The drifting amines increase salt rejection but have little effect on water permeation. It implies that a high flux and high rejection membrane for desalting can be obtained by attaching freely rotating charged groups.     

The role of electrostatic interactions on the rejection of organic solutes in aqueous solutions with nanofiltration

The effects of electrostatic interactions on the rejection of organic solutes with nanofiltration membranes were investigated. For two different membranes, the rejection of selected organic acids, positively and negatively charged pharmaceuticals and neutral pharmaceuticals was investigated at different feed water chemistries (different ionic strengths and pH conditions, with and without the presence of NOM and divalent cations). It was concluded that for negatively charged membranes, electrostatic repulsion leads to an increase of the rejection of negatively charged solutes and electrostatic attraction leads to a decrease of the rejection of positively charged solutes, compared to neutral solutes. Neutral and positively charged solutes engage in hydrophobic interactions with negatively charged membranes, whereas negatively charged solutes do not engage in hydrophobic interactions since they cannot approach the membrane surface. This provides proof for the theory of an increased concentration of positively charged organic solutes and a decreased concentration of negatively charged organic solutes at the membrane surface compared to the bulk fluid. This concept may be denoted as “charge concentration polarisation”. The concept was further used as a modelling tool to predict the effects of electrostatic interactions on the rejection of trace organic solutes.     

Electrokinetic investigations of charged porous membranes

Asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes were prepared from fully aromatic polyamides differing in the diamine monomers of the polymeric backbone and from polysulfone. Nanofiltration membranes were made from polysulfone and polyethersulfone. The polysulfone as well as the polyethersulfone were chemically modified to change the surface charges of the membranes that were made from these polymers. This means neutral, positively as well as negatively charged membranes could be employed for the measurements. The surface properties of the membranes as a function of pH were determined by measuring the streaming potential in a perpendicular and horizontal mode. Applying proteins the values of the streaming potential changed depending on the original charges of the membranes as well as on the pH of the solution. The values shifted to either higher or lower absolute values. Thus, characterization of unused and used membranes can be carried out by electrokinetic measurements. This was also demonstrated using a membrane fitted out with invertase. The zeta potential of nanofiltration membranes, however, was only evaluated from the results obtained with the horizontally run cell.     

Influence of steric, electric, and dielectric effects on membrane potential

The membrane potential arising through nanofiltration membranes separating two aqueous solutions of the same electrolyte at identical hydrostatic pressures but different concentrations is investigated within the scope of the steric, electric, and dielectric exclusion model. The influence of the ion size and the so-called dielectric exclusion on the membrane potential arising through both neutral and electrically charged membranes is investigated. Dielectric phenomena have no influence on the membrane potential through neutral membranes, unlike ion size effects which increase the membrane potential value. For charged membranes, both steric and dielectric effects increase the membrane potential at a given concentration but the diffusion potential (that is the high-concentration limit of the membrane potential) is affected only by steric effects. It is therefore proposed that membrane potential measurements carried out at high salt concentrations could be used to determine the mean pore size of nanofiltration membranes. In practical cases, the membrane volume charge density and the dielectric constant inside pores depend on the physicochemical properties of both the membrane and the surrounding solutions (pH, concentration, and chemical nature of ions). It is shown that the Donnan and dielectric exclusions affect the membrane potential of charged membranes similarly; namely, a higher salt concentration is needed to screen the membrane fixed charge. The membrane volume charge density and the pore dielectric constant cannot then be determined unambiguously by means of membrane potential experiments, and additional independent measurements are in need. It is suggested to carry out rejection rate measurements (together with membrane potential measurements).     

Nanocomposite membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is a molecular separation method which offers a sustainable and reliable solution compared to the conventional energy-intensive separation processes. OSN can be successfully applied to several applications, such as food, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and fine-chemical industries. Current research on OSN membranes mainly focuses on polymeric materials due to the ease of processing, controlled formation of pores, lower fabrication costs and higher flexibility as compared with inorganic materials. However, there are some limitations for the polymeric membranes which can be partially surmounted by adding nanoscale fillers into the polymeric matrix to make nanocomposite membranes. This review aims to comprehensively evaluate and report the advances in nanocomposite membranes prepared by using either different nanoscale fillers or various fabrication methods for OSN applications. Nanoparticles that will be discussed include metal-organic framework, graphene oxide, carbon nanotubes, silica, titanium, gold, zeolite and other fillers. The incorporation of these nanoscale fillers into the polymeric membranes can positively influence the mechanical strength, chemical and thermal stability, hydrophilicity, solute selectivity and solvent permeance. This study may provide helpful insights to develop next-generation of OSN membranes for years to come.     

紫外辐照接枝制备亲水性荷正电纳滤膜

通过在酚酞基聚芳醚酮超滤膜表面紫外辐照接枝亲水性单体二烯丙基二甲基氯化铵(DADMAC)制备了一种表面荷正电的纳滤膜. ATR-FTIR和表面水接触角的研究结果表明膜表面的接枝率和亲水性随着辐照时间和单体在接枝溶液中的浓度的增加而增加. 荷正电纳滤膜对盐溶液有很好的截留, 对盐溶液中的高价阳离子和低价阳离子的截留率分别为95%和65%. 但当溶液中存在高价负离子时, 膜的截留性能会明显下降. 表明静电效应在荷电纳滤膜的分离过程中起了重要的作用.     

Mass diffusion-based separation of sugars in a microfluidic contactor with nanofiltration membranes

Processes such as chromatographic separation and nanofiltration can remove low molecular weight sugars from liquid mixtures of oligosaccharides. As an alternative for the separation of such liquid mixtures, we studied mass diffusion separation of such sugars in a microfluidic device with incorporated nanofiltration membranes. This separation method is based on differences between diffusivities of components and does not require high transmembrane pressures. The effects of channel depth and flow rate were studied in experiments. The key parameters selectivity and rejection increased with increasing channel depth due to increased external mass transfer limitations. Among the studied membranes, the obtained selectivities and rejections correlated to the specified retention values by the manufacturers. Compared to more conventional nanofiltration where high pressure forces solutes through membranes, we obtained corresponding selectivities and fluxes of only an order of magnitude smaller. Simulated results indicated that with optimized microchannel and membrane dimensions, the presented separation process can compete with currently available separation technologies.     

Characteristics and performance of new nanoporous PEEKWC films

This rapid communication reports a summary of the key findings of preparation and characterization of new polymeric membranes for nanofiltration of organic compounds. A series of nanoporous asymmetric membranes of PEEKWC, a modified poly(etheretherketone) was prepared by means of the dry-wet phase inversion method. In particular, the type and concentration of internal non-solvent were varied in order to obtain membranes for nanofiltration. The optimization of these factors led to reproducible membranes, which were characterized for hydrophobicity, roughness, morphology, surface charge. The performance was studied by doing dead-end filtration experiments with aqueous solutions of uncharged and charged organic compounds. The new polymeric films exhibited interesting performance compared to commercial nanofiltration membranes in terms of retention and relative flux for positively charged organic compounds.     

An improved process for separation of proteins using modified chitosan-silica cross-linked charged ultrafilter membranes under coupled driving forces: isoelectric separation of proteins

Functionalized chitosan namely as N-methylene phosphonic chitosan (PC) and quaternized chitosan (QC) silica composite charged ultrafilter membranes were prepared by acid catalyzed sol-gel method in the aqueous media and gelated in methanol for tailoring their pore structure. These membranes were employed for developing a simple membrane process for pH sensitive protein fractionation under coupled driving forces (pressure and electric gradient). Protein transmission (selectivity) and membrane throughput across both membranes were studied using binary mixture of protein under different gradients at pH points: 2.0, 4.8, 10.7, and 13.0. It was concluded that separation from the binary mixture of BSA-LYS, separation LYS at pH 4.8 (pI of BSA) using negatively charged PC-Si membrane or separation BSA at pH 10.7 (pI of LYS) using positively charged QC-Si membrane, was possible with high selectivity. Also in all cases, due to coupling of driving forces, filtrate flux and selectivity were enhanced by several folds. Furthermore, applied electric gradient progressively increased the separation factor values, which was close to 10 for PC-Si and 15 for QC-Si membranes. Relatively high separation value of individual protein from binary mixture and filtrate velocity suggests the practical usefulness of this novel process and biopolymer membranes.     

界面聚合制备新型荷正电纳滤膜

以聚砜超滤膜为基膜,聚乙烯亚胺、均苯三甲酰氯为界面聚合单体,水和正己烷分别为两相溶剂,通过界面聚合方法制备荷正电纳滤膜。实验着重考察了Na2SO4-PEG400-H2O三元混合体系的分离情况,结果表明,该膜可有效地实现低分子量有机物与Na2SO4的分离;另外,随着Na2SO4或PEG400浓度的增大,膜对Na2SO4和PEG400的截留率有所降低。     

UV辐照接枝聚合制备亲水性纳滤膜

用紫外光引发自由基共聚接枝的方法对酚酞基聚芳醚酮(PEK-C)超滤膜表面进行改性制备了亲水性荷电纳滤膜. 研究了用不同单体接枝改性膜对盐溶液的截留性能, 证明了Donnan电荷效应对纳滤膜分离性能的影响. 在此基础上, 通过丙烯酸(AA)与对苯乙烯磺酸钠(SSS)的共聚接枝, 并改变它们在接枝液中的相对含量, 成功地制备出膜的表观截留率和渗透通量都较高的纳滤膜.     

Polymeric Membrane Nanofiltration and Its Application to Separations in the Chemical Industries

The application of membrane technology, particularly water-based nanofiltration, as a separation process in the chemical industries has increased tremendously in recent years. However, the use of membranes capable of molecular separation in non-aqueous systems (e.g. nanofiltration) is a relatively new and growing application of membrane technology. The main challenge in applying polymeric nanofiltration membranes to non-aqueous systems is that the polymers developed for water-based applications are not suitable. Polyimide is a particularly interesting polymer as it has excellent chemical resistance, and membranes produced from it provide desirable separation properties – i.e. economically viable flux and good separation of nanoscale molecules. Various research works have shown that commercial polyimide organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes, trademark STARMEM™, 1 are robust and suitable for performing molecular separations. This work will discuss in detail the use of STARMEM™ in a pharmaceutical application. The EIC-OSN process was developed for separating the enantiomers of chiral compounds in pharmaceutical applications. High optical purity (94.9%) of (S)-phenylethanol from rac-phenylethanol was achieved through the use of STARMEM™122. Process simulation of the ideal eutomer-distomer system predicted that the highest theoretical resolvability from this process would be 99.2%. Other application areas of OSN are varied, including purification and fractionation in the natural products industry, homogeneous catalyst recovery, monomer separation from oligomers, etc. Currently, OSN is used in a small number of processes including a very large petrochemical application, but it has the potential to be applied to a wide range of separations across the full spectrum of the chemical industries.     

Influence of membrane fouling by (pretreated) surface water on rejection of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) by nanofiltration membranes

The effects of surface water pretreatment on membrane fouling and the influence of these different fouling types on the rejection of 21 neutral, positively and negatively charged pharmaceuticals were investigated for two nanofiltration membranes. Untreated surface water was compared with surface water, pretreated with a fluidized anionic ion exchange and surface water, pretreated with ultrafiltration. Fouling the nanofiltration membranes with anionic ion exchange resin effluent, resulted in the deposition of a mainly colloidal fouling layer, with a rough morphology. Fouling the nanofiltration membranes with ultrafiltration permeate, resulted in the deposition of a smooth fouling layer, containing mainly natural organic matter. The fouling layer on the nanofiltration membranes, caused by the filtration of untreated surface water, was a combination of both colloids and natural organic matter.Rejection of pharmaceuticals varied the most for the membranes, fouled with the anionic ion exchange effluent, and variations in rejection were caused by a combination of cake-enhanced concentration polarisation and electrostatic (charge) effects. For the membranes, fouled with the other two water types, variations in rejection were smaller and were caused by a combination of steric and electrostatic effects.Changes in membrane surface hydrophobicity due to fouling, changed the extent of partitioning and thus the rejection of hydrophobic, as well as hydrophilic pharmaceuticals.     

Polyamide Nanofiltration Membrane from Surfactant-assembly Regulated Interfacial Polymerization of 2-Methylpiperazine for Divalent Cations Removal

Removal of metal ions from water can not only alleviate the scaling problem of domestic and industrial water, but also solve the water safety problem caused by heavy metal ion pollution. Here, we fabricate a positively charged nanofiltration membrane via surfactant-assembly regulated interfacial polymerization(SARIP) of 2-methylpiperazine(MPIP) and trimesoyl chloride(TMC). Due to the existence of methyl substituent, MPIP has lower reactive activity than piperazine(PIP) but stronger affinity to hexane, resulting in a nanofiltration(NF) membrane with an opposite surface charge and a loose polyamide active layer. Interestingly, with the help of sodium dodecyl sulfate(SDS) assembly at the water/hexane, the reactivity between MPIP and TMC was obviously increased and caused in turn the formation of a positively charged polyamide active layer with a smaller pore size, as well as with a narrower pore size distribution. The resulting membrane shows a highly efficient removal of divalent cations from water, of which the rejections of MgCl₂, CoCl₂ and NiCl₂ are higher than 98.8%, 98.0% and 98.0%, respectively, which are better than those of most of other positively charged NF membranes reported in literatures.     

纳滤膜对电解质溶液分离特性的理论研究(II): 混合电解质溶液

假定纳滤膜具有狭缝状孔, 使用纯水透过系数、膜孔径及膜表面电势来表征纳滤膜的分离特征, 用流体力学半径和无限稀释扩散系数表征了离子特性. 采用扩展Nernst-Planck方程、Donnan平衡模型和Poisson-Boltzmann理论描述了混合电解质溶液中离子在膜孔内的传递现象, 计算了三种商用纳滤膜(ESNA1-LF, ESNA1和LES90)对同阴离子、同阳离子和含四种离子的混合电解质体系中离子的截留率, 并与实验数据进行了比较. 计算结果表明, 电解质溶液中离子在纳滤膜孔内传递的主要机理是离子的扩散和电迁移, 纳滤膜对混合电解质溶液中离子的分离效果主要由空间位阻和静电效应决定. 该模型在低浓度时对含一价离子的混合电解质溶液通过纳滤膜的截留率计算结果比较准确, 但对高浓度或含高价离子的混合电解质溶液则偏差较大.     

Surface modification of phenolphthalein poly(ether sulfone) ultrafiltration membranes by blending with acrylonitrile-based copolymer containing ionic groups for imparting surface electrical properties

Asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes were fabricated from the blends of phenolphthalein polyethersulfone (PES-C) and acrylonitrile copolymers containing charged groups, poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylamido methylpropane sulfonic acid) (PAN-co-AMPS). From the surface analysis by XPS and ATR-FTIR, it was found that the charged groups tend to accumulate onto the membrane surface. This result indicated that membrane surface modification for imparting surface electrical properties could be carried out by blending charged polymer. Furthermore, with the help of a relatively novel method to measure membrane conduction, the true zeta potentials calculated on the basis of the streaming potential measurements were used to reflect the charge state of membrane surface. In addition, it was noteworthy that, from the profiles of zeta potential versus pH curves and the magnitude of zeta potentials, the determination of zeta potential was dependent not only on the electrical properties of membrane surface but also on its hydrophilicity. At last, based on a relatively elaborate study on the electrostatic interaction between the membrane surface and protein, it was found that these charged membranes could meet different demands of membrane applications, such as resisting protein fouling or protein separation, through adjusting solution pH value.     

Recent advances in application of the graphene-based membrane for water purification

Graphene is an atomic layer thick carbon-based material with unique two-dimensional architecture and extraordinary physiochemical, optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. Graphene and its derivatives show significant promises for the development of nanoporous ultrathin filtration membranes capable of molecular separation properties. Graphene-based nanofiltration membranes featuring distinct laminar structures can offer various novel mass-transport phenomena for purifying water, energy storage and separation, gas separation, and proton conductors. The latest developments in water purification techniques through graphene-based membranes including engineering, design, and fabrication of diverse graphene, graphene-oxide, and graphene-composite membranes are provided here in relation to their application paradigm for purifying water. The critical views on pollutant removal mechanisms for water purification along with optimization measures are specially highlighted. In addition, the challenges, shortcomings, and future prospects are pointed out. The green and large-scale synthesis technology of graphene coupling with advanced membrane fabrication techniques can promote these state-of-the-art nanofiltration membranes for a wide range of applications.     

Separation of aqueous electrolyte solutions with asymmetric membranes containing one charged layer

The Nernst-Planck equation and fine-pore membrane model are applied to describe the ultra- and nanofiltration of electrolyte solutions through a inhomogeneous membrane containing one charged layer. Concentration and electric potential distributions, as well as dependences of electrolyte rejection coefficient (selectivity) and streaming potential on system parameters are determined. Asymmetry effect is revealed with respect to the rejection coefficient and streaming potential at different orientations of the selective charged layer relative to the direction of the filtration flow. The cases of 1: 1 and 1: 2 electrolytes are investigated in detail. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the rejection coefficient of a bi-layer membrane rises in the following series of binary electrolytes: 1: 2 < 1: 1 < 2: 1, when the first layer is positively charged, and in the opposite series of these electrolytes, when the first layer is negatively charged.     

Effect of operating variables on rejection of indium using nanofiltration membranes

Indium and its compounds exhibit excellent semiconductor properties however they are suspected carcinogenic to human beings. For the first time, we applied nanofiltration (NF) technology to the separation of indium from a synthetic wastewater as a literature review revealed little information on the treatment of such a waste. In this research, three types of nanofiltration membranes, NTR7450, ES10 and ES10C, were employed to compare their performances under various operating conditions. With increasing indium concentration in the feed solution, the rejection rates decreased in all the membranes, which could be ascribed to concentration polarization and ion-shielding effects. The changes of indium concentration in the permeate (C_p) were then correlated to the concentration factor (CF) during nanofiltration of the feed solution. The experimental results were well predicted by the theoretical analysis. Increase of operating pressure enhanced their rejection rates of indium, which might be attributed to the “dilute effect”. The real rejection (f_r) of indium by nanofiltration was found permeate flux dependent. Based on the results obtained, the nanofiltration mechanisms of multivalent cations such as In³⁺ were delineated and discussed. It was found that most of the models developed from nanofiltration of univalent and divalent cations were still valid for the nanofiltration process of trivalent cations. However, the strong chemical potential of trivalent cations to form complexes in the solution around neutral pH exerted a significant impact on indium rejection rates of the NF membranes. The experimental results suggest a stable performance of nanofiltration when applied to the semiconductor wastewater, however, acidic conditions should be avoided.