Ultra-strong polymeric hollow fiber membranes for saline dewatering and desalination.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33879779.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-22684-1 and PMC identifier 8058345.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Osmotically assisted reverse osmosis (OARO) has become an emerging membrane technology to tackle the limitations of a reverse osmosis (RO) process for water desalination. A strong membrane that can withstand a high hydraulic pressure is crucial for the OARO process. Here, we develop ultra-strong polymeric thin film composite (TFC) hollow fiber membranes with exceptionally high hydraulic burst pressures of up to 110 bar, while maintaining high pure water permeance of around 3 litre/(m<sup>2</sup> h bar) and a NaCl rejection of about 98%. The ultra-strong TFC hollow fiber membranes are achieved mainly by tuning the concentration of the host polymer in spinning dopes and engineering the fiber dimension and morphology. The optimal TFC membranes display promising water permeance under the OR and OARO operation modes. This work may shed new light on the fabrication of ultra-strong TFC hollow fiber membranes for water treatments and desalination.