Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Culp, Tyler E
• Khara, Biswajit
• Brickey, Kaitlyn P
• Geitner, Michael
• Zimudzi, Tawanda J
• Wilbur, Jeffrey D
• Jons, Steven D
• Roy, Abhishek
• Paul, Mou
• Ganapathysubramanian, Baskar
• Zydney, Andrew L
• Kumar, Manish
• Gomez, Enrique D

Titel

Nanoscale control of internal inhomogeneity enhances water transport in desalination membranes

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2021-01, Vol.371 (6524), p.72-75

Ort / Verlag

United States: The American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Biological membranes can achieve remarkably high permeabilities, while maintaining ideal selectivities, by relying on well-defined internal nanoscale structures in the form of membrane proteins. Here, we apply such design strategies to desalination membranes. A series of polyamide desalination membranes-which were synthesized in an industrial-scale manufacturing line and varied in processing conditions but retained similar chemical compositions-show increasing water permeability and active layer thickness with constant sodium chloride selectivity. Transmission electron microscopy measurements enabled us to determine nanoscale three-dimensional polyamide density maps and predict water permeability with zero adjustable parameters. Density fluctuations are detrimental to water transport, which makes systematic control over nanoscale polyamide inhomogeneity a key route to maximizing water permeability without sacrificing salt selectivity in desalination membranes.