Metal-Organic Frameworks Uio-66 and MIL-125 Nanoparticles Enhance the Performance of Thin Film Nanocomposite Membrane for Water Desalination

Two metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) UIO-66 and MIL-125 nanoparticles (NPs) were filled into thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes to increase their performance in reverse osmosis application. Membranes were prepared by the interfacial polymerization of 2% m-phenylenediamine (MPD) in aqueous solution and 0.15% trimesoyl chloride (TMC)-isooctane [1] solution. Polysulfone (PSU) sheets were prepared by phase inversion and employed to support the synthesized membranes. Different NPs weight ratios, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.3 %, were used to study the impacts of these additives on membrane efficiency. The as-prepared membranes and NPs were characterized using different techniques for better understanding of the observations. At the optimum addition, the water flux was enhanced from 62.5 L/m² h to 74.9 L/m² h by adding 0.15% UIO-66 and to 85.0 L/m² h by adding 0.3% MIL-125. The NaCl rejection was not significantly affected by embedding UIO-66 and even slightly improved by MIL-125, always at ≥ 98.5% as tested at 2000 ppm salt concentration and 300 psi transmembrane pressure.

References

1- Mohammed Kadhom, Jun Yin, Baolin Deng, “A Thin Film Nanocomposite Membrane with MCM-41 Silica Nanoparticles for Brackish Water Purification”, Membranes, 6, 50, (2016) 1-12.