Preparation and characterization of thin-film composite reverse osmosis membrane on a novel aminosilanemodified polyvinyl chloride support

Abstract

Herein, the influence of pure and modifed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) support layers on the performance of thin-flm composite (TFC) membranes was investigated in water desalination. Accordingly, the PVC support was modifed using (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) through bulk modifcation. The supports were synthesized at different doses of APTES (0-6 wt%) and characterized with various analytical techniques. The results showed that APTES affected considerably both the morphology and surface properties of the support layer. Afterwards, the polyamide (PA) layer was formed via an identical interfacial polymerization (IP). The separation experiments showed that modifcation of the support improved the performance of the TFC membranes, which stems from the improvement in the degree of cross-linking of the PVC structure. At an appropriate condition, permeate fluxes were 0.89 L.m-2.h-1.bar-1 and 2.70 L.m-2.h-1.bar-1for TFC membranes with pure and modifed PVC support layers, respectively. Interestingly, there were no signifcant changes in salt rejection of the prepared membranes.