Materials physics of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes
Xijing Zhang, Huan Yan, Tamlin Matthews, and David G. Cahill
NSF-STC Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems, NSF agreement CTS-0120978

Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes are widely used to dealinate and decontaminate water supplies for human use. The active layer of commerical RO or NF membrane is typically an aromatic polyamide layer, on the order of 100 nm thick, formed by interfacial polymerization on a porous polysulfone support. The nanoscale dimensions and inhomogeneous morphology of the active layer greatly hinders basic understanding of the physics and chemistry that govern the separation of salt ions and small molecule contaminants. We are developing and applying novel methods for probing these nanoscale complex materials: we use Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy to measure the partitioning of ions and heavy metal contaminants; techniques of fluorescence microscopy to determine the local transport rates; and measurements of interfacial stress to quantify the mechanical interactions of water and contaminates with the polymer matrix.

---

File translated from T_EX by T_TH, version 3.74.
On 01 Apr 2008, 08:12.