Abstract

Chlorine resistant reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were fabricated using a multi-walled carbon nanotube-polyamide (MWCNT-PA) nanocomposite. The separation performance of these membranes after chlorine exposure (4800 ppm·h) remained unchanged (99.9%) but was drastically reduced to 82% in the absence of MWCNT. It was observed that the surface roughness of the membranes changed significantly by adding MWCNT. Moreover, membranes containing MWCNT fractions above 12.5 wt.% clearly improved degradation resistance against chlorine exposure, with an increase in water flux while maintaining salt rejection performance. Molecular dynamics and quantum chemical calculations were performed in order to understand the high chemical stability of the MWCNT-PA nanocomposite membranes, and revealed that high activation energies are required for the chlorination of PA. The results presented here confirm the unique potential of carbon nanomaterials embedded in polymeric composite membranes for efficient RO water desalination technologies.

Details

Title
Robust water desalination membranes against degradation using high loads of carbon nanotubes
Author
Ortiz-Medina, J 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Inukai, S 1 ; Araki, T 2 ; Morelos-Gomez, A 1 ; Cruz-Silva, R 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Takeuchi, K 3 ; Noguchi, T 4 ; Kawaguchi, T 4 ; Terrones, M 5 ; Endo, M 3 

1  Global Aqua Innovation Center, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan 
2  Global Aqua Innovation Center, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan; Division of Computational Science and Technology, Research Organization for Information Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan 
3  Global Aqua Innovation Center, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan; Institute of Carbon Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan 
4  Institute of Carbon Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan 
5  Institute of Carbon Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan; Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, Department of Materials Science and Engineering & Center for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, U.S.A. 
Pages
1-12
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Feb 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21192-5
ProQuest document ID
2000016399
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.