Tunable membranes incorporating artificial water channels for high-performance brackish/low-salinity water reverse osmosis desalination
Maria Di Vincenzo, Alberto Tiraferri, Valentina Musteaţa, Ştefan Chişcă, Mihai Deleanu, Francesco Ricceri, Didier Cot, Suzana P. Nunes, Mihail Bãrboiu
Abstract
Significance Inspired by biological models, artificial water channels can be used to overcome the permeability/selectivity trade-off of traditional desalination membranes. We demonstrate that rational incorporation of I-quartet artificial water channels in composite polyamide membranes synthesized via interfacial polymerization, provides defect-free biomimetic membranes with intrinsic water-to-salt permeability on the operational brackish-water reverse osmosis (BWRO)/tap water reverse osmosis (TWRO) desalination pressure and medium/low-salinity conditions.
Topics & Concepts
Reverse osmosisPermeanceDesalinationMembraneBrackish waterPressure-retarded osmosisOsmotic powerChemical engineeringWater softeningForward osmosisFiltration (mathematics)NanofiltrationMaterials scienceChemistryEnvironmental engineeringSalinityEnvironmental scienceEngineeringPermeationComposite materialMathematicsSofteningGeologyBiochemistryOceanographyStatisticsMembrane Separation TechnologiesNanopore and Nanochannel Transport StudiesMembrane-based Ion Separation Techniques