dumee-chargetunable-2017.pdf (2.42 MB)
Charge tunable thin-film composite membranes by gamma-ray triggered surface polymerization
journal contribution
posted on 2017-06-01, 00:00 authored by R Reis, M C Duke, B L Tardy, D Oldfield, R R Dagastine, J D Orbell, Ludovic DumeeThin-film composite poly(amide) (PA) membranes have greatly diversified water supplies and food products. However, users would benefit from a control of the electrostatic interactions between the liquid and the net surface charge interface in order to benefit wider application. The ionic selectivity of the 100 nm PA semi-permeable layer is significantly affected by the pH of the solution. In this work, for the first time, a convenient route is presented to configure the surface charge of PA membranes by gamma ray induced surface grafting. This rapid and up-scalable method offers a versatile route for surface grafting by adjusting the irradiation total dose and the monomer concentration. Specifically, thin coatings obtained at low irradiation doses between 1 and 10 kGy and at low monomer concentration of 1 v/v% in methanol/water (1:1) solutions, dramatically altered the net surface charge of the pristine membranes from -25 mV to +45 mV, whilst the isoelectric point of the materials shifted from pH 3 to pH 7. This modification resulted in an improved water flux by over 55%, from 45.9 to up 70 L.m-2.h-1, whilst NaCl rejection was found to drop by only 1% compared to pristine membranes.
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Journal
Scientific reportsVolume
7Article number
4426Pagination
1 - 10Publisher
NatureLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
Link to full text
eISSN
2045-2322Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2017, The AuthorsUsage metrics
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