Reactive substrate-driven interfacial polymerization for wrinkled polyamide membranes with enhanced permeance

A novel strategy was developed to regulate polyamide (PA) membrane morphology and performance by introducing a reactive copolymer, poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) (PSMA), into the polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. The reactive anhydride groups of PSMA first react with piperazine (PIP) monomers, s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ping Xu, Shaofan Duan, Pengfei Zhang, Kecheng Guan, Hideto Matsuyama
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Journal of Membrane Science Letters
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421225000108
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Summary:A novel strategy was developed to regulate polyamide (PA) membrane morphology and performance by introducing a reactive copolymer, poly(styrene-alt-maleic anhydride) (PSMA), into the polyethersulfone (PES) substrate. The reactive anhydride groups of PSMA first react with piperazine (PIP) monomers, subsequently affecting diffusion and reaction dynamics of the remaining monomers during interfacial polymerization (IP) for PA layer formation. As a result, wrinkled PA morphologies were formed, enhancing the surface roughness and effective filtration area. The wrinkled PA membranes exhibited significantly improved water permeance (up to 19.7 L m-2 h-1 bar-1) while maintaining comparable rejection rates of 98.7 %, 98.2 %, 85.7 %, 6.1 %, 7.1 % for Na2SO4, MgSO4, MgCl2, LiCl, and NaCl, respectively, due to the similar free volume to unmodified membranes. This work offers a promising approach to tailor membrane structure and optimize nanofiltration performance via substrate reactivity engineering.
ISSN:2772-4212