Developing crosslinked and fluorinated thin-filmed composite membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration

• Main Author: Lee, Youngbin
• Other Authors: She Qianhong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Environmental engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167372
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) is a pressure-driven membrane process that is applied in solvent recovery and chemical extraction. This project aims to evaluate the influence of crosslinker and fluorinated monomer on efficiency of thin-film composite (TFC) membrane. Several models were fabricated to compare their characteristics and efficiency. 5-(Trifluoromethyl)-m-phenylenediamine (TFMPD) were mixed with m-Phenylenediamine (MPD) to make fluorinated TFC membrane. The presence of crosslinker and ratio of fluorinated monomer on membrane were investigated. Four different membranes were synthesized and compared for their characteristics and efficiency. Fluorinated membrane did not change the morphology of membrane and crosslinker contributed to the higher density of substrate. On the other hand, the fluorine incorporated membrane became more hydrophobic and enhanced the permeance, around 3.32 L m-2h-1bar-1 which is 3 times greater than that of the F-free membrane. Overall rejection of the membranes showed above 90% except the non-crosslinked F-free membrane. Heterogeneous TFMPD/MPD solution was the key factor that interfered the further study on identification of the effect of TFMPD and crosslinker on membrane. Future research should be done to prepare homogeneous TFMPD aqueous solution. After solving the previous problem, investigation of performance of TFC membrane module should be carried out to verify the efficiency of crosslinker and fluorinated monomer on OSN membrane.