INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
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2021
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IF 3.764
Vladimir Mankol,Zhan Hao,Song Zhao,Hongyu Wu,Yunlong Qi,Zhi Wang,Jixiao Wang
Silica scalant and organic foulant are rapidly deposited onto the surface of a thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membrane during the desalination process. The scaling and fouling propensity of the membranes are affected by the properties of the membrane surface. In this work, a sulfonated TFC-RO membrane was prepared with a comonomer of 2,5-diaminobenzenesulfonic acid (DABS) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD) through an interfacial polymerization process to promote the scaling and fouling resistance. Detailed characterization was carried out to analyze the structure and surface morphology of the fabricated TFC-RO membranes. Compared to the nascent PA TFC-RO membrane, PA-DABS membranes exhibited a smoother, negatively charged, and more hydrophilic surface and showed significantly lower flux decline in both silica scaling and combined scaling–fouling experiments. Moreover, gradient isosurfaces for the interaction indicated a sulfonic group having stronger repulsion with silicic acid than the carboxyl group. Therefore, this work provides new understanding of a simple and efficient design of RO membranes that can be used for desalination of combined mineral-silica and organic-fouling laden water.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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2025
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IF 11.3
Zhiwei Qiu,Hailan Wang,Ruobin Dai,Zhiwei Wang
Silica scaling poses a substantial challenge in the advanced treatment of industrial wastewater by reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, while the existing methods modifying RO membranes to enhance antisilica scaling performance often compromise water permeance. Herein, we fabricated a sulfonated RO membrane (SLRO) using sodium lignosulfonate as a comonomer, achieving an enhanced charge density and reduced coordination capacity. SLRO exhibited superior antisilica scaling performance, reducing scaling rates by ∼145, ∼166, and ∼157% under acidic, neutral, and alkaline conditions compared to the control. Reduced density gradient analysis confirmed that sulfonic acid groups (−SO3H) on the SLRO surface increased the repulsion of silicic acid. Moreover, the SLRO demonstrated reductions of ∼112, ∼137, and ∼133% in cation-mediated silica scaling rates under the same conditions, attributed to the weaker coordination between −SO3H and cations, which diminished the cation-bridging effect. Furthermore, SLRO membranes exhibited high pure water permeance (3.3 L m–2 h–1 bar–1) and NaCl rejection (99.2%), with a water/NaCl selectivity (7.8 bar–1) three times greater than that of the control (2.6 bar–1), primarily attributed to increased surface roughness and reduced apparent thickness of the PA layer. Our work provides a robust strategy for fabricating silica scaling-resistant RO membranes with improved perm-selectivity.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
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2023
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IF 4.2
Zhan Hao,Zhenyi Zhao,Hongyu Wu,Zhiyuan Zha,Xinxia Tian,Lixin Xie,Song Zhao
Inorganic scaling and organic fouling remain limiting factors for the further application of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Herein, a novel monomer, 2,2′-benzidinedisulfonic acid (BDSA), was selected as a comonomer with m-phenylenediamine (MPD) to fabricate RO membranes. Compared with the polyamide (PA) composite membrane, the as-prepared PA-BDSA composite membrane exhibited enhanced surface hydrophilicity and a smoother, more negative charge (zeta potential of −44.4 mV at pH 7). During the 24 h antiscaling experiment with a saturated silica solution (SiO2 concentration of 168 ppm), the water flux decline rate of the PA-BDSA-0.2 membrane was only 18%, which was 10% lower than that of the PA membrane (28%). During antifouling and scaling-fouling experiments, the PA-BDSA membranes also displayed less flux loss than the PA membrane, indicating its simultaneous alleviation of organic fouling and silica scaling. The analysis of the fouling layer revealed that compared to the PA membrane, fewer contaminants adhered to the PA-BDSA membrane surface. Furthermore, the interactions between silica and organic foulants were investigated, and the synergy of sodium alginate (SA) and silica aggravated fouling and scaling processes, resulting in a more serious flux decline rate. This research reveals a simple and practical method for the preparation of RO membranes to mitigate membrane scaling and fouling.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
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2020
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IF 6.551
Kai-Ge Lu,Mengya Li,Haiou Huang
Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were preconditioned in this study with humic acid , sodium alginate , or bovine serum albumin, and subsequently examined for silica scaling using the water matrix representative of concentrated brackish groundwater. The results suggested that water matrix combined with organic foulants affected silica scaling. High ambient pH favored the moderate silica ionization and thus the silica homogeneous polymerization to potentially form low molecular weight silica oligomers . The resulting scaling layer was dense and highly impermeable. Under the high Ca proportion at a given hardness, membrane scaling was enhanced through the Ca-induced silica scaling and the formation of intermolecular bridges between adjacent silica species. In contrast, high Mg hardness may facilitate the sustainable growth of silica oligomers to form the ringed high molecular weight oligomers by reducing the required energy for chain deformation. The deposition of these oligomers caused a loose scaling layer with reduced hydraulic resistance to water permeation. During the scaling tests under similar water matrix, the membranes slightly fouled by organics suffered severe flux decline due to an available space provided by the pre-existing organic fouling layer for subsequent silica scaling.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
DESALINATION
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2024
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IF 8.3
Guoliang Li,Lulu Liu,Jianquan Luo,Jia Guo,Lei Chen,Yinhua Wan,Xiangrong Chen
Silica scaling is a major challenge in the application of high-pressure reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. In this work, we modified commercially available RO membranes by grafting different sulfonic acid monomers onto their surface using redox polymerization. We systematically studied the effects of various sulfonic acid monomers on membrane performance. Due to the different grafting abilities of sulfonic acid monomers on the membrane, the modified membranes exhibited different physicochemical properties. Simulated silica scaling experiments revealed that the initial permeate flux and sulfonic acid grafting rate of the membrane played crucial roles in its antifouling performance. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation indicated that the adsorption of silica scale on the membrane was positively correlated with the grafting degree of sulfonic acid monomers. The membrane modified with 3-sulfopropyl potassium methacrylate (SPM) demonstrated a 14 % higher initial flux than the pristine membrane and the highest sulfonic acid grafting rate, resulting in the lowest flux decay rate. Additionally, the SPM modified membrane outperformed the pristine membrane against composite foulants with organic matters and silica. Our research demonstrated that the redox grafting polymerization of sulfonic acid monomers can simultaneously improve the flux and silica scaling resistance of RO membranes without compromising salt rejection. This provides a scalable strategy for preparing RO membranes with enhanced resistance to silica scaling.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
WATER RESEARCH
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2018
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IF 7.051
Kai-Ge Lu,Haiou Huang
Silica scaling of reverse osmosis membranes in brackish water desalination is less understood than hardness scaling due to the complex silica behaviors at the membrane/water interface. In this study, -COOH, -SO 3 H, -NH 2 and -OH functional groups were introduced onto polyamide membranes to create distinct surface physicochemical properties . The resulting membranes were further studied under similar scaling conditions to yield temporal flux loss data that were empirically interpreted by a logistic growth model. The scaled membranes were also characterized by complementary analytical techniques. It was found that permeate flux loss was strongly correlated to the initial silica layer formed by direct interaction between reactive silanol (Si-OH) and reciprocal groups on the membrane surface, rather than the entire scaling layer. Importantly, membrane surface properties dictated the initial silica layer formation through three possible mechanisms, i.e., electrostatic repulsion, competitive adsorption, and interfacial energy change. Of these, electrostatic repulsion was identified as the primary one. Therefore, by modifying the membrane surface properties, the three aforementioned mechanisms may be enhanced to favor the formation of a loose, disordered initial silica scaling layer. Accordingly, membrane flux loss may be mitigated. This finding provided important insights into the design heuristics of scaling-resistant reverse osmosis membrane for brackish water desalination.
研究领域:
环境科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
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2023
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IF 9.5
Wei Chen,Xiaoyu Shi,Jun Cai,Hu Yang
Silica scaling has become a common problem in membrane systems due to the ubiquity of silica in the natural environment. In this work, a series of N -[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]methacrylamide-grafted hydroxyethyl cellulose (DHEC) with different grafting ratios was designed and used as a silica scaling inhibitor. The performances and mechanisms of DHEC in the inhibition of silica scaling were evaluated in detail by static and reverse osmosis (RO) tests. The maximum inhibition efficiency of DHEC with the grafting ratio of 97% reached as high as 77.20% ± 0.26% in the static test. The permeate flux in the presence of this DHEC gradually decreased and was eventually maintained at 89.12% after 10 h of RO operation. The efficient mitigation of silica scaling was ascribed to the synergistic effect of the grafted copolymer , specifically, the hydrophilic cellulose backbone of DHEC exerted a dispersion effect and the cationic grafted chains acted as aggregators to inhibit silica scaling in the solution and at the membrane surface. This synergistic effect cannot delay the induction time of silica polymerization but can change the dominant mode of polymerization in the solution from the first-order to the second-order reaction as confirmed by the kinetic study . Thus, DHEC is an efficient and environmentally friendly inhibitor with high application potential for membrane fouling control in RO operations.
研究领域:
环境科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）