TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of support pore size and porosity on epoxide-based TFC membranes
AU - Lenaerts, Nathalie
AU - Verbeke, Rhea
AU - Davenport, Douglas M.
AU - Caspers, Scout
AU - Eyley, Samuel
AU - Kantre, Karim Alexandros
AU - Volodine, Alexander
AU - Helm, Ricardo
AU - Butterling, Maik
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - The drive to expand the implementation of membrane separation technology towards harsher environments prompted the development of chemically robust epoxide-based TFC membranes. This work seeks to better understand the influence of the support on epoxide-based TFC membrane performance and properties. More specifically, it investigates the impact of porous PAN support layers of different porosities and pore sizes on the formation of poly(epoxyether) (PEE) thin films via interfacial initiation of polymerization (IIP), and their more cross-linked and more charged PEE counterparts (XL-PEE) arising from a subsequent post-treatment step. A systematic study was conducted using a series of supports with pore sizes varying from 20 nm to 90 nm and porosities in the range of 4% to 10%, while maintaining identical synthesis conditions for the selective layer. The physicochemical properties of the selective layer were characterized in-depth with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), elastic recoil detection (ERD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to elucidate the synthesis-structure-performance relationship. PEE TFC membranes comprising these supports had a broad range in water permeances of 5 – 30 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 with consistent methyl orange (327.33 g mol−1) rejections of ca. 90%. The densified XL-PEE TFC membranes all achieved ca. 65% NaCl rejections, again independent of the support properties. In contrast, more porous supports resulted in more permeable TFC membranes, which can be attributed to the so-called funnel effect. Additionally, the solvent used to prepare the support layers through non-solvent induced phase separation also impacted the selective layer by affecting the interfacial properties during IIP. This work thus demonstrates that the support can serve as an easy tool to fine-tune the performance of the next-generation of high-performance epoxide-based TFC membranes.
AB - The drive to expand the implementation of membrane separation technology towards harsher environments prompted the development of chemically robust epoxide-based TFC membranes. This work seeks to better understand the influence of the support on epoxide-based TFC membrane performance and properties. More specifically, it investigates the impact of porous PAN support layers of different porosities and pore sizes on the formation of poly(epoxyether) (PEE) thin films via interfacial initiation of polymerization (IIP), and their more cross-linked and more charged PEE counterparts (XL-PEE) arising from a subsequent post-treatment step. A systematic study was conducted using a series of supports with pore sizes varying from 20 nm to 90 nm and porosities in the range of 4% to 10%, while maintaining identical synthesis conditions for the selective layer. The physicochemical properties of the selective layer were characterized in-depth with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), elastic recoil detection (ERD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to elucidate the synthesis-structure-performance relationship. PEE TFC membranes comprising these supports had a broad range in water permeances of 5 – 30 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 with consistent methyl orange (327.33 g mol−1) rejections of ca. 90%. The densified XL-PEE TFC membranes all achieved ca. 65% NaCl rejections, again independent of the support properties. In contrast, more porous supports resulted in more permeable TFC membranes, which can be attributed to the so-called funnel effect. Additionally, the solvent used to prepare the support layers through non-solvent induced phase separation also impacted the selective layer by affecting the interfacial properties during IIP. This work thus demonstrates that the support can serve as an easy tool to fine-tune the performance of the next-generation of high-performance epoxide-based TFC membranes.
KW - Epoxide-based membranes
KW - Interfacial initiation of polymerization
KW - Nanofiltration
KW - PAN support
KW - TFC membranes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85219502200&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2025.123900
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2025.123900
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85219502200
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 722
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
M1 - 123900
ER -