Incorporation of an Intermediate Polyelectrolyte Layer for Improved Interfacial Polymerization on PAI Hollow Fiber Membranes
Maria A. Restrepo,
Mehrdad Mohammadifakhr,
Johannes Kamp,
Krzysztof Trzaskus,
Antoine J. B. Kemperman,
Joris de Grooth,
Hendrik D. W. Roesink,
Hannah Roth,
Matthias Wessling
Affiliations
Maria A. Restrepo
Chemical Process Engineering AVT.CVT, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Mehrdad Mohammadifakhr
MST-Membrane Science and Technology Cluster, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Johannes Kamp
Chemical Process Engineering AVT.CVT, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Krzysztof Trzaskus
Department of Research and Development, Aquaporin A/S, Nymøllevej 78, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Antoine J. B. Kemperman
MST-Membrane Science and Technology Cluster, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Joris de Grooth
MST-Membrane Science and Technology Cluster, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Hendrik D. W. Roesink
MST-Membrane Science and Technology Cluster, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Hannah Roth
Chemical Process Engineering AVT.CVT, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Matthias Wessling
Chemical Process Engineering AVT.CVT, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany
In a single-step spinning process, we create a thin-walled, robust hollow fiber support made of Torlon® polyamide-imide featuring an intermediate polyethyleneimine (PEI) lumen layer to facilitate the integration and covalent attachment of a dense selective layer. Subsequently, interfacial polymerization of m-phenylenediamine and trimesoyl chloride forms a dense selective polyamide (PA) layer on the inside of the hollow fiber. The resulting thin-film composite hollow fiber membranes show high NaCl rejections of around 96% with a pure water permeability of 1.2 LMH/bar. The high success rate of fabricating the thin-film composite hollow fiber membrane proves our hypothesis of a supporting effect of the intermediate PEI layer on separation layer formation. This work marks a step towards the development of a robust method for the large-scale manufacturing of thin-film composite hollow fiber membranes for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration.
