Highly Permeable Polyamide Nanofiltration Membrane Mediated by an Upscalable Wet-Laid EVOH Nanofibrous Scaffold

For energy-saving purposes, the pursuit of ultrahigh permeance nanofiltration membranes without sacrificing selectivity is never-ending in desalination, wastewater treatment, and industrial product separation. Herein, we reported a novel facile route to engineer a highly porous and superhydrophilic nanofibrous substrate to mediate the interfacial polymerization between trimesoyl chloride and piperazine, generating an ultrathin PA active layer (similar to 13 nm) with a hierarchical crumpled surface. The wet laying process and subsequent plasma treatment endowed a rougher and more hydrophilic surface for ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) nanofibers in the thin compact nanofibrous scaffold (similar to 9 mu m) with a mean pore size of 210 nm, radically different from the nanofibrous membrane by other methods. Nanofibrous scaffold with these features provide abundant thin-thick alternative continuous water layers between nanofibers and organic phase, facilitating the formation of the abovementioned PA layer. As a result, an ultrahigh permeance of 42.25 L.m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1) and a reasonably high rejection of 95.97% to 1000 ppm Na2SO4 feed solution were obtained, superior to most state-of-the-art NF membranes reported so far. Our work provides an easy and scalable method to fabricate advanced PA NF membranes with outstanding performance, highlighting its great potential in liquid separation.

Automated summary

A novel method to fabricate high-performance nanofiltration membranes by improving the nanofibrous substrate and forming an ultrathin PA active layer was reported. Membranes produced using this method exhibited ultrahigh permeance and relatively high rejection rates, showing outstanding performance and great potential in liquid separation applications.