Preparation of newly synthesized forward osmosis membrane

Abstract

Forward osmosis (FO) membrane was fabricated with a newly synthesized acetylated methyl cellulose (AMC) membrane. The FO membrane performance was compared with a commercially available reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for seawater desalination. Interfacial polymerization was done on the AMC support membrane for FO membrane preparation. Polyamide layer was successfully formed. The membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy analysis. The surface of two membranes shows similar ridge-and-valley structure. However, the support layer of two membranes was completely different. The polyamide membrane based on the AMC support layer shows much better FO and RO performance than the RO membrane due to difference at the membrane cross-section between two membranes. The big macrovoids of the AMC support layer make flux much higher. In contrast, the RO membrane shows sponge-like structure at the membrane cross-section.