Oxidative degradation of polyamide reverse osmosis membranes: Studies of molecular model compounds and selected membranes

Selected aromatic amides were used to model the chemical reactivity of aromatic polyamides found in thin‐film composite reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. Chlorination and possible amide bond cleavage of aromatic amides upon exposure to aqueous chlorine, which can lead to membrane failure, were investigated. Correlations are made of the available chlorine concentration, pH, and exposure time with chemical changes in the model compounds. From the observed reactivity trends, insights are obtained into the mechanism of RO membrane performance loss upon chlorine exposure. Two chemical pathways for degradation are shown, one at constant pH and another that is pH‐history dependent. An alternative strategy is presented for the design of chlorine‐resistant RO membranes, and an initial performance study of RO membranes incorporating this strategy is reported. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 1173–1184, 2003     

Selective Transport of Bismuth Ions through Supported Liquid Membrane

A new supported liquid membrane (SLM) system was prepared for the selective transport of bismuth ions from the aqueous feed into the aqueous permeate phase. The support of the SLM was a thin porous polypropylene or polyvinylidene fluoride membrane impregnated with diisooctyldithiophosphinic acid (Cyanex 301) as mobile carrier in 4‐chloroacetophenon as organic solvent. Cyanex 301 acts as a highly selective carrier for the uphill transport of bismuth ions through the SLM. In the presence of HNO₃ as a metal ion acceptor in the strip solution, the transport of bismuth ions into the strip side reached 70 % of the initial feed concentration after 3.5 hours. The selectivity and efficiency of bismuth transport from aqueous solutions containing different mixtures of cations were investigated. In the presence of P₂O₇^2– ions as suitable masking agent in the feed solution, the interfering effects of other cations were completely eliminated. The selective transport of bismuth through SLM is superior to liquid‐liquid extraction or through bulk liquid membranes. This is due to the high efficiency. The SLM reduces the solvent requirements, combines extraction and stripping operations in a single process and allows the use of highly selective extractants. The system may be applied to samples containing very low bismuth concentrations.     

Separation of propranolol enantiomers through membranes based on chiral derivatized polysulfone

The characterization of new synthesized chiral polymeric membranes, based in polysulfone polymer is here reported. Polysulfone was derivatized to chiral polysulfone, by bonding covalently the chiral carrier, N-dodecyl-4(R)-hydroxy-l-proline, to the polymer matrix. Two different chiral polysulfones, referred to as CPS_A and CPS_B, have been synthesized and used in the preparation of chiral polymeric membranes. However, as a consequence of the limited CPS_B solubility, only CPS_A resulted adequate to obtain useful membranes. Therefore, various chiral polysulfone membranes containing different amounts of CPS_A in unmodified polysulfone (PS) were prepared and properly characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by enantioselective transport experiments of racemic propranolol. Dialysis transport experiments allowed us to determine the influence of the carrier content in the membrane on the transport rate and on enantiomer separation. Membranes containing a CPS_A/PS ratio of 1:3 showed an alpha value of 1.1 at 96 h of performance. Modelling of the propranolol transport rate is also performed.     

Elimination of organic matter present in wastewaters from the cork industry by membrane filtration

BACKGROUND: The first stage of the cork industrial process generates great volumes of wastewater with moderate to high organic pollutant content that must be purified using different procedures, such as filtration by membranes. RESULTS: The tangential filtration of these wastewaters was studied using two different laboratory equipments. In the first one, three ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were tested, with molecular weight cut‐off (MWCO) 100 kDa and 30 kDa, and two operating modes were used: total recycling of permeate and retentate streams, and in continuous mode, without recycling both streams. In the total recycling UF experiments, the influence of the operating variables on the permeate flux was first established. The effectiveness of the different membranes was determined by evaluating the rejection coefficients for several parameters that measure the global pollutant content of the effluent. The values found for these rejection coefficients were in the following order: ellagic acid and color > absorbance at 254 nm > tannic content > COD (chemical oxygen demand). In the continuous mode experiments, the fouling mechanism for each membrane was established by fitting the experimental data to various filtration fouling models given in the literature. The operating mode in the second equipment was batch concentration, and additional experiments were carried out with an UF membrane (2 kDa), and with a NF membrane (with MWCO in the range 150–300 Da). CONCLUSIONS: The three operating modes tested provided different rejection levels of organic matter; among them, the most effective procedure tested was batch concentration mode using a NF membrane. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

新的载体媒介传递膜

总结了近几年研究和发展的几种载体媒介传递膜。与支撑液膜相比，这些膜具有好的稳定性和长的寿命。对某些物质，如重金属离子、小分子中性碳氢化合物、氨基酸等有高的选择性和通量。它们的传递机理为固定位置跳跃或移动和固定载体2种机理结合。这些研究有望在环境、生物等技术领域中应用。     

各种状态的液体通过核孔膜的规律

介绍了液体通过核孔膜规律方面取得的新认识，包括：（１）纯净液体通过核孔膜的规律；（２）核孔膜测定液体粘滞系数的各种方法；（３）各种物质溶液浓度的核孔膜测定；（４）液相混合物快速分离和化学分离；（５）流体中固体微粒对核孔膜的堵塞及其公式；（６）用核孔膜滤除液中各各斩规律。     

Characterization of hollow fiber membranes in a permeator using binary gas mixtures

We have studied the CO₂/CH₄ mixed gas permeation through hollow fiber membranes in a permeator. An approach to characterize the true separation performance of hollow fiber membranes for binary gas mixtures was provided based on experiments and simulations. Experiments were carried out to measure the retentate and permeate flow rates and compositions at each outlet. The influences of pressure drop within the hollow fibers, non-ideal gas behavior in the mixture and concentration polarization were taken into consideration in the mathematics model. The calculation results indicate that the net influence of the non-ideal gas behavior, competitive sorption and plasticization yields the calculated CO₂ permeance in a mixed gas permeator close to that obtained in pure gas tests. Whereas the CH₄ permeance is higher in the mixed gas tests than that in the pure gas tests, as the plasticization caused by CO₂ dominates the permeation process. As a result, the CO₂/CH₄ mixed gas selectivity is smaller than those obtained in pure gas tests at equivalent pressures.The calculated membrane performance shows little changes with stage cut if the effect of concentration polarization is accounted for in the calculation. The integration method developed in this study could provide more accurate characterizations of mixed gas permeance of hollow membranes than other estimation methods, as our model considers the roles of non-ideal gas behavior and concentration polarization properly.     

Asymmetric alumina membranes electrochemically formed in oxalic acid solution

Alumina membranes were fabricated by anodizing aluminium metal in 0.15 M oxalic acid. The growth kinetics of the porous layer were investigated in the temperature range –1 to 16 °C using linear potential scans up to 70 V. The faradaic efficiencies of metal oxidation and of porous layer formation, determined by applying Faraday's law, were found to be independent of both temperature and electrical charge. SEM analysis of the metal-side and solution-side surfaces revealed different morphologies. After dissolution of the barrier layer in phosphoric acid, the metal-side surface showed circular pores whose size of about 90 nm was found to be uniform and independent of temperature. The pore population was also practically independent of temperature and a value of about 4 × 10¹³ pores m^–2 was determined. On the solution-side surface the presence of a deposit partially occluding the mouths of pores was observed. This coating could be removed by chemical etching in NaOH or thermal treatment at 870 °C, where decomposition of oxalate occurs. This supports the hypothesis that the deposit consists of an aluminium salt containing oxalate anions precipitated from the solution. The results show that it is possible to control the morphological characteristics of the anodic alumina membranes by careful choice of experimental conditions.     

Finite element analysis of partly wrinkled reinforced prestressed membranes

Wrinkling is a well known phenomenon experimented by tension membranes in Civil Engineering applications. This paper will present an efficient numerical technique for the computational simulation of such wrinkles in a prestressed membrane. In particular, the relaxed energy approach (Pipkin in IMA J Appl Math 36:85–99, 1986) is particularized for prestressed membranes (Gil in Textile composites and inflatable structures, CIMNE, 2003) undergoing moderate strains. Wrinkling conditions in terms of the Euler-Lagrange finite deformation tensor along principal directions will be obtained. This will provide a framework to describe properly the initial instant when wrinkles start to be encountered in a prestressed Saint Venant–Kirchhoff hyperelastic membrane. Subsequently, a modified Helmholtz’s free energy functional will be introduced with the purpose of describing the modified constitutive behaviour of the continuum after the onset of wrinkling. Consistent derivations of the stress tensor as well as the constitutive tensor will de depicted. The results will be particularized for membranes and cables in a Finite Element discretization basis. Some numerical examples will prove the accuracy and robustness of the described algorithm.     

透湿膜的透湿机理与膜的研究概况

基于透湿膜的空气除湿是一种比较新颖的空气除湿方法。本文介绍了各种膜在空气除湿领域的应用情况，结合对膜制备工艺的简要介绍，侧重对原除湿原理，亲水性的高分子纤维素膜，凝胶膜和分子筛无机膜在空气除湿领域的研究和进展进行了分析。