Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Ion Sorption and Permeation in Desalination Membranes

With the purpose of gaining insights into the mechanisms of ion uptake and permeation in desalination membranes, MD investigation of a model polyamide membrane was carried out. A relatively large membrane (45K atoms) was assembled, which closely matched real desalination membrane in terms of chemistry and water permeability. Simulations demonstrate that the mechanism of ion uptake distinctly differs from mean-field approaches assuming a smeared excluding Donnan potential. Ion sorption on charged sites in the membrane phase appears to be highly localized, due to electrostatic forces dominating over translational entropy. Moreover, sorption on partial atomic charges becomes possible as well, which greatly enhances salt (co-ion) uptake and weakens the effect of fixed charges on salt exclusion. This could explain high ion uptake measured in polyamide membranes for both co- and counterions and variations of ion sorption and permeation at low salt concentrations. On the other hand, present simulations greatly overestimate ion permeability, which could be explained by a more open structure than in real membranes, in which dense polyamide fragments may efficiently block ion permeation. Unfortunately, MD cannot analyze ion uptake and permeation in dense fragments containing too few ions, which calls for new approaches to studying barrier properties of polyamide

Breaking the Symmetry: Mitigating Scaling in Tertiary Treatment of Waste Effluents Using a Positively Charged Nanofiltration Membrane

When salinity of municipal wastewater increases and approaches the limits of toxicity for plants, moderate desalting of wastewater becomes vital for keeping it suitable for irrigation. Nanofiltration (NF) is an attractive solution, as it partially removes NaCl. Unfortunately, commercial NF membranes (e.g., NF270) strongly reject multivalent ions present in wastewater, especially, scale-forming calcium and phosphate. This results in undesired demineralization, severe membrane scaling, and unacceptably low water recovery. To address this problem, we report here that a positively charged NF (p-NF) performs significantly better than NF270, owing to overall lower rejection of scale-forming ions. Therefore, for a commensurate flux and NaCl rejection, p-NF shows much less scaling than NF270, even at recoveries as large as 80%–85%. This suggests that p-NF may have an advantage over standard NF for moderate desalting of wastewater and other water sources with high scaling potential

Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Ion Sorption and Permeation in Desalination Membranes

With the purpose of gaining insights into the mechanisms of ion uptake and permeation in desalination membranes, MD investigation of a model polyamide membrane was carried out. A relatively large membrane (45K atoms) was assembled, which closely matched real desalination membrane in terms of chemistry and water permeability. Simulations demonstrate that the mechanism of ion uptake distinctly differs from mean-field approaches assuming a smeared excluding Donnan potential. Ion sorption on charged sites in the membrane phase appears to be highly localized, due to electrostatic forces dominating over translational entropy. Moreover, sorption on partial atomic charges becomes possible as well, which greatly enhances salt (co-ion) uptake and weakens the effect of fixed charges on salt exclusion. This could explain high ion uptake measured in polyamide membranes for both co- and counterions and variations of ion sorption and permeation at low salt concentrations. On the other hand, present simulations greatly overestimate ion permeability, which could be explained by a more open structure than in real membranes, in which dense polyamide fragments may efficiently block ion permeation. Unfortunately, MD cannot analyze ion uptake and permeation in dense fragments containing too few ions, which calls for new approaches to studying barrier properties of polyamide

Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Ion Sorption and Permeation in Desalination Membranes

With the purpose of gaining insights into the mechanisms of ion uptake and permeation in desalination membranes, MD investigation of a model polyamide membrane was carried out. A relatively large membrane (45K atoms) was assembled, which closely matched real desalination membrane in terms of chemistry and water permeability. Simulations demonstrate that the mechanism of ion uptake distinctly differs from mean-field approaches assuming a smeared excluding Donnan potential. Ion sorption on charged sites in the membrane phase appears to be highly localized, due to electrostatic forces dominating over translational entropy. Moreover, sorption on partial atomic charges becomes possible as well, which greatly enhances salt (co-ion) uptake and weakens the effect of fixed charges on salt exclusion. This could explain high ion uptake measured in polyamide membranes for both co- and counterions and variations of ion sorption and permeation at low salt concentrations. On the other hand, present simulations greatly overestimate ion permeability, which could be explained by a more open structure than in real membranes, in which dense polyamide fragments may efficiently block ion permeation. Unfortunately, MD cannot analyze ion uptake and permeation in dense fragments containing too few ions, which calls for new approaches to studying barrier properties of polyamide

When Salt-Rejecting Polymers Meet Protons: An Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Investigation

Polymeric membranes are widely used for salt removal, but mechanism of ion permeation is still insufficiently understood. Here we analyze ion transport in polymers relevant to desalination, dense aromatic polyamide Nomex and cellulose acetate (CA), using impedance spectroscopy, focusing on the effects of the salt type, concentration and pH. The results highlight the role of proton uptake in ion permeation. For Nomex the exceptionally high affinity to proton results in a power-low scaling of conductivity with salt concentrations with an unusual exponent 1/2. The results for CA suggest dominance of pore transport, with pore charge increasing with decreasing pH, which contradicts previous view of CA as a weakly acidic polymer and points to proton uptake as possible pore-charging mechanism. The observed effects may have far-reaching consequences in desalination, as even at neutral pH they may both enhance and suppress salt permeation and affect pH changes

Toward Improved Boron Removal in RO by Membrane Modification: Feasibility and Challenges

Membrane modification by concentration polarization (CP)-enhanced radical graft polymerization using a dilute aqueous solution of appropriate monomer was examined as a method for increasing rejection of boric acid by reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. On the basis of suggested physicochemical rationales a number of monomers were examined in order to determine those with the lowest affinity toward boric acid as compared to water. The improvement in the modified membrane performance was mainly attributed to sealing less selective areas (“defects”) inherently present in the original low pressure RO (LPRO) membranes. However, the effect clearly differed for different monomers. Among the examined monomers glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) exhibited the lowest affinity and the largest improvement in removal of boric acid along with a moderate loss of permeability and slightly improved NaCl rejection. Modification of LPRO membrane thus resulted in a membrane with a permeability in the brackish water RO (BWRO) range but with removal of boric acid and salt superior to those reported for most commercial BWRO membranes

Surface Modification of Dense Membranes Using Radical Graft Polymerization Enhanced by Monomer Filtration

Surface graft polymerization is a promising way to modify membranes for improved performance. Redox-initiated graft polymerization of vinyl monomers is a facile and inexpensive method carried out at room temperature in aqueous media; however, its use is often limited by slow kinetics, low surface specificity, and excessive consumption of chemicals on undesired homopolymerization. It is shown that in the case of RO or NF membranes these drawbacks may be eliminated by utilizing the selectivity of the membranes toward monomers and carrying out the polymerization while applying pressure, i.e., under filtration conditions. Concentration polarization that ensues raises the concentration of reagents near the membrane surface and thereby drastically increases the rate of reaction and preferentially directs it towards surface grafting. Grafting experiments using 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and other monomers and characterization of modified membranes using permeability measurements, ATR-FTIR, AFM, XPS, and contact angle demonstrate that the required monomer concentrations can be drastically reduced, particularly when a small fraction of a cross-linker is added. As an additional benefit, this approach enables broadening the spectrum of utilizable monomers to sparingly soluble hydrophobic, charged, and macro-monomers, as was demonstrated using sparingly soluble ethyl methacrylate and 2-ethoxyethyl methacrylate and other monomers. Even though the kinetics of the process is substantially complicated by evolution and concentration polarization of oligomeric and polymeric species, especially in the presence of a cross-linker, it is well offset by the benefits of higher rate, specificity, and reduced monomer consumption

Analysis of Ion Transport in Nanofiltration Using Phenomenological Coefficients and Structural Characteristics

The analysis of salt transport in nanofiltration using extended Nernst−Planck equations or similar models often suffers from the difficulties to establish and independently and transparently verify the consistency between the filtration results, assumed mechanism, and fitted values of parameters. As a general alternative, we propose here a procedure that reduces filtration data to two general phenomenological coefficients, concentration-dependent salt permeability ωs and Peclét coefficient A, which does not require that a specific exclusion mechanism be assumed and thus allows a transparent test on consistency with commonly used models. This approach was demonstrated using concentration polarization-corrected filtration data for NF-200 membrane and four monovalent salts, NaCl, NaBr, KBr, and KCl. The coefficient A was found to be very small, which points to the negligible contribution of convection to salt transport. The smallness of A was verified through estimates of the effective pore radius of the membrane, found to be between 0.2 and 0.3 nm, and comparing them with similar independent estimates from the hydraulic permeability Lp using the data on the thickness and swelling of the selective polyamide layer obtained by AFM. The concentration dependence of ωs and its variation for different salts suggested that in the concentration range above 0.01 M the salt exclusion may be dominated by a combination of Donnan and dielectric mechanisms. The values of ωs obtained for single salts were also consistent with the selectivity observed for equimolar feed mixtures of NaCl and NaBr. However, the observed variation of ωs with concentrations of single salts below 0.01 M reveals a new regime that is inconsistent with all commonly used models of NF based on a Donnan mechanism modified with dielectric and steric effects. In particular, ωs appeared to approach a constant value at low salt concentrations, whereas the standard mechanisms predict a linear or even steeper decrease as concentration decreases. This puzzling discrepancy could have passed unnoticed in the standard multiparameter fitting extended Nernst−Planck equations and demonstrates the benefits of the present phenomenological analysis

Bacterial Attachment to RO Membranes Surface-Modified by Concentration-Polarization-Enhanced Graft Polymerization

Concentration polarization-enhanced radical graft polymerization, a facile surface modification technique, was examined as an approach to reduce bacterial deposition onto RO membranes and thus contribute to mitigation of biofouling. For this purpose an RO membrane ESPA-1 was surface-grafted with a zwitterionic and negatively and positively charged monomers. The low monomer concentrations and low degrees of grafting employed in modifications moderately reduced flux (by 20–40%) and did not affect salt rejection, yet produced substantial changes in surface chemistry, charge and hydrophilicity. The propensity to bacterial attachment of original and modified membranes was assessed using bacterial deposition tests carried out in a parallel plate flow setup using a fluorescent strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens. Compared to unmodified ESPA-1 the deposition (mass transfer) coefficient was significantly increased for modification with the positively charged monomer. On the other hand, a substantial reduction in bacterial deposition rates was observed for membranes modified with zwitterionic monomer and, still more, with very hydrophilic negatively charged monomers. This trend is well explained by the effects of surface charge (as measured by ζ-potenital) and hydrophilicity (contact angle). It also well correlated with force distance measurements by AFM using surrogate spherical probes with a negative surface charge mimicking the bacterial surface. The positively charged surface showed a strong hysteresis with a large adhesion force, which was weaker for unmodified ESPA-1 and still weaker for zwitterionic surface, while negatively charged surface showed a long-range repulsion and negligible hysteresis. These results demonstrate the potential of using the proposed surface- modification approach for varying surface characteristics, charge and hydrophilicity, and thus minimizing bacterial deposition and potentially reducing propensity biofouling