Modification of Polyamide-Urethane (PAUt) Thin Film Composite Membrane for Improving the Reverse Osmosis Performance

• DOI: 10.3390/polym10040346
• Publication Date: 2018-03-22T09:14:55Z
• Authors: Li-Fen Liu; Xing-Ling Gu; Sa-Ren Qi; Xin Xie; Rui-Han Li; Ke Li; Chun-Yang Yu; Cong-Jie Gao
• Keywords: Polysulfone; Interfacial polymerization; Thin-film composite membrane; Surface Modification; Biofouling; Attenuated total reflection

In the current study, poly (amide-urethane) (PAUt) membranes were successfully fabricated by interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and 5-choroformyloxyisophaloyl chloride (CFIC) on polysulfone substrates. Two modification methods based layer-by-layer assembly applied to modify PAUt membrane surface achieve antifouling property: 1. Chitosan (CS) was directly self-assembled (i.e., PAUt-CS); 2. polydimethyl diallyl ammonium (PDDA), polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), CS successively PAUt-PDDA/PSS/CS). The resultant symmetrically characterized Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray Photoelectron (XPS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force (AFM) Contact Angle Meter (CAM), respectively. results indicated that modified had much smoother more hydrophilic surfaces as compared nascent membrane. Meanwhile, exhibited better reverse osmosis performance in terms water permeability salt rejection. After fouled lake water, PAUt-PDDA/PSS/CS presented best among three types membranes. Combining with anti-fouling property obviously, behaved a promising candidate be used real applications.