Authors:
Haiyang Jin
1
;
Li Lin
2
;
Min Liu
2
;
Qingyun Li
2
;
Zhuo Huang
2
;
Xianqiang Tang
2
and
Ping Yu
3
Affiliations:
1
Basin Water Environmental Research Department, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, Hubei, Key Lab of Basin Water Resource and Eco-Environmental Science in Hubei Province, Wuhan, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University and Wuhan, China
;
2
Basin Water Environmental Research Department, Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Wuhan, Hubei, Key Lab of Basin Water Resource and Eco-Environmental Science in Hubei Province and Wuhan, China
;
3
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University and Wuhan, China
Keyword(s):
Forward osmosis, membrane modification, nano silica dioxide, cellulose acetate
Abstract:
Nano-silica dioxide (nano-SiO2) modified cellulose acetate (CA) membranes for forward osmosis (FO) were prepared by phase inversion via immersion precipitation technique. Nano-SiO2 particles were added into the casting solution of CA, 1, 4-dioxane, acetone, lactic acid and methanol to improve the FO membranes performance. Different percentage of nano-SiO2 (2, 4 and 6 wt. %) of CA composite membranes were cast. The modified membranes were characterized by various methods to probe the membranes structure and surface properties. The FO performances were also evaluated for the modified membranes compared to the non nano-SiO2 membranes. The surface hydrophilicity, porosity and tensile strength of nano-SiO2 CA membranes were improved with the increment of the percentage of nano-SiO2 added to the CA. The morphological studies showed that the addition of nano-SiO2 significantly changed the surface properties of the CA membranes. The FO performance was evaluated using 1M NaCl solution as fee
d solution and purified water as draw solution. The nano-SiO2 CA membranes showed better water flux and reverse salt flux in the range of 2–6 wt. % nano-SiO2 content than original CA membranes. These encouraging results suggested that nano-SiO2 CA membranes displayed potential to be further developed for FO applications.
(More)