Fabrication of surface functionalized UiO- 66/Polyamide-based thin film composite hollow fiber forward osmosis membrane

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) is the most energy-efficient technology and has been studied with interest by researchers. Especially, thin film composite hollow fiber membranes (TFC HF) are extensively used. Due to its numerous advantages such as low energy requirements, simplicity of operation, and high specificity. Metal-organic-frameworks (MOFs) studies have been actively conducted to bond a metal to a polymer of a membrane in order to further improve the performance of the membrane. Of these, UiO-66 has attracted a great interest because it has various effects such as high hydrophilicity, stable structure, and increased porosity. In this study, surface functionalized hollow fiber membranes were fabricated by using Polyethersulfone (PES) as the support layer and Polyamide (PA) as the active layer with UiO-66. Membrane characterization and FO performance tests were also performed for the membranes. The crystalline structure of UiO-66 was confirmed by SEM image and FT-IR analysis. In addition, UiO-66 added membrane showed about 35% higher water permeability than pristine membrane. There was no pressurization and no degradation of selectivity. In addition, the analysis of water permeability coefficient, reverse solute permeability, and structural parameters showed a 20% improvement over pristine membrane. The overall results showed that the UiO-66 added membranes are superior than the pristine membranes.