Preparation of TFC-PES Reverse Osmosis Hollow Fibre Membrane for Brackish Water Desalination

Abstract

High-performance composite reverse osmosis hollow fibre membranes have been recently produced. These membranes have maximum salt recovery 98,1% and permeability 1.2 l/m2*h*bar. The newly developed membranes consist of two layers: active and support. An active layer has been synthesized by interfacial polymerization of the mixture of MPD and aliphatic amine and TMC. PES hollow fibre membranes with an outer selective layer made with a wet-spinning method have been used as the support one. The production of the selective layer of the reverse osmosis membranes has been carried out in two stages through keeping the membrane in isopropyl alcohol. It has been shown that two-stage application through a soaking procedure in isopropyl alcohol allows to achieve a defect-free layer of polyamide. It was also noted that the addition of aliphatic amines to the mPDA solution made it possible to achieve high values of perm selectivity compared to a solution that contained only mPDA.