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标题：Robust water desalination membranes against degradation using high loads of carbon nanotubes
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作者：J. Ortiz-Medina ; S. Inukai ; T. Araki 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2018
卷号：8
期号：1
页码：2748
DOI：10.1038/s41598-018-21192-5
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Chlorine resistant reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were fabricated using a multi-walled carbon nanotube-polyamide (MWCNT-PA) nanocomposite. The separation performance of these membranes after chlorine exposure (4800 ppm·h) remained unchanged (99.9%) but was drastically reduced to 82% in the absence of MWCNT. It was observed that the surface roughness of the membranes changed significantly by adding MWCNT. Moreover, membranes containing MWCNT fractions above 12.5 wt.% clearly improved degradation resistance against chlorine exposure, with an increase in water flux while maintaining salt rejection performance. Molecular dynamics and quantum chemical calculations were performed in order to understand the high chemical stability of the MWCNT-PA nanocomposite membranes, and revealed that high activation energies are required for the chlorination of PA. The results presented here confirm the unique potential of carbon nanomaterials embedded in polymeric composite membranes for efficient RO water desalination technologies.