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Experimental Evidence of Rapid Water Transport through Carbon Nanotubes Embedded in Polymeric Desalination Membranes
Author(s) -
Lee Hee Dae,
Kim Hyo Won,
Cho Young Hoon,
Park Ho Bum
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201303945
Subject(s) - membrane , polyamide , desalination , carbon nanotube , materials science , thin film composite membrane , chemical engineering , interfacial polymerization , reverse osmosis , nanotechnology , polymer , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemistry , biochemistry , monomer , engineering
As water molecules permeate ultrafast through carbon nanotubes (CNTs), many studies have prepared CNTs‐based membranes for water purification as well as desalination, particularly focusing on high flux membranes. Among them, vertically aligned CNTs membranes with ultrahigh water flux have been successfully demonstrated for fundamental studies, but they lack scalability for bulk production and sufficiently high salt rejection. CNTs embedded in polymeric desalination membranes, i.e., polyamide thin‐film composite (TFC) membranes, can improve water flux without any loss of salt rejection. This improved flux is achieved by enhancing the dispersion properties of CNTs in diamine aqueous solution and also by using cap‐opened CNTs. Hydrophilic CNTs were prepared by wrapping CNT walls via bio‐inspired surface modification using dopamine solution. Cap‐opening of pristine CNTs is performed by using a thermo‐oxidative process. As a result, hydrophilic, cap‐opened CNTs‐embedded polyamide TFC membranes are successfully prepared, which show much higher water flux than pristine polyamide TFC membrane. On the other hand, less‐disperse, less cap‐opened CNTs‐embedded TFC membranes do not show any flux improvement and rather lead to lower salt rejection properties.