Grazing Incidence Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering of Water Adsorption in Polyamide Barrier Layers of Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Fu, Qinyi; Zheng, Size; Verma, Nisha; Gambarini, Roberto; Wei, Tao; Ocko, Benjamin M.; Hsiao, Benjamin S.

doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02699

Grazing Incidence Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering of Water Adsorption in Polyamide Barrier Layers of Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Journal Article · Fri Dec 27 00:00:00 EST 2024 · Macromolecules

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02699· OSTI ID:2587802

Fu, Qinyi ^[1]; Zheng, Size ^[1]; Verma, Nisha ^[1]; Gambarini, Roberto ^[2]; Wei, Tao ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[1]

Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)

To understand the relationship between the intermolecular structure of aromatic polyamide (PA) scaffold and the water molecules in the barrier layers of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, a grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) study was carried out on freestanding PA thin films at varying relative humidity (RH) conditions. The scattering results were analyzed by an interference scattering model, containing a phase factor between a PA chain and an adsorbed water molecule. This model yielded good fits to the GIWAXS profiles where the water adsorption was found to vary linearly with RH. Atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were also performed to complement the experimental study. Furthermore, the simulations revealed that a rapid condensation layer initially formed on the PA film surface, followed by the slow water molecule diffusion inside the PA membrane. Sparse adsorbed water, isolated in subnanopores of the PA film adjacent to the polar atoms, even in very low quantities, modifies the X-ray scattering. Atomistic simulations at the microscopic scale provide partial support for several X-ray scattering findings.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2587802

Report Number(s):: BNL--228873-2025-JAAM

Journal Information:: Macromolecules, Journal Name: Macromolecules Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 58; ISSN 1520-5835; ISSN 0024-9297

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (42)

Details of surface features in aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis membranes characterized by scanning electron and atomic force microscopy Kwak, Seung-Yeop; Jung, Soo Gyung; Yoon, Young Seo Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol. 37, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0488(19990701)37:13<1429::AID-POLB9>3.0.CO;2-B	journal	July 1999
Light scattering and capillary condensation in porous media Haynes, J. M.; McCaffery, F. G. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 59, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9797(77)90334-4	journal	March 1977
A new thin-film composite seawater reverse osmosis membrane Cadotte, J. E.; Petersen, R. J.; Larson, R. E. Desalination, Vol. 32 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-9164(00)86003-8	journal	January 1980
Surface modification of commercial composite polyamide reverse osmosis membranes Belfer, S.; Purinson, Y.; Fainshtein, R. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 139, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0376-7388(97)00248-2	journal	February 1998
Water vapour adsorption in highly porous carbons as seen by small and wide angle X-ray scattering László, Krisztina; Czakkel, Orsolya; Dobos, Gábor Carbon, Vol. 48, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2009.11.023	journal	April 2010
PXLink: A simulation program of polymer crosslinking to study of polyamide membrane Zhang, Chi; Bu, Guangle; Sajib, Md Symon Jahan Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 291 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2023.108840	journal	October 2023
A recent progress in thin film composite membrane: A review Lau, W. J.; Ismail, A. F.; Misdan, N. Desalination, Vol. 287 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2011.04.004	journal	February 2012
Probing the hydrophobicity of commercial reverse osmosis membranes produced by interfacial polymerization using contact angle, XPS, FTIR, FE-SEM and AFM Akin, Oguz; Temelli, Feral Desalination, Vol. 278, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2011.05.053	journal	September 2011
Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination by thin-film composite membrane—Current development, challenges and future prospects Misdan, N.; Lau, W. J.; Ismail, A. F. Desalination, Vol. 287 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2011.11.001	journal	February 2012
Thin film composite membrane — Recent development and future potential Ismail, A. F.; Padaki, M.; Hilal, N. Desalination, Vol. 356 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2014.10.042	journal	January 2015
Synchrotron SAXS to probe cross-linked network of polyamide ‘reverse osmosis’ and ‘nanofiltration’ membranes Singh, P. S.; Ray, P.; Xie, Z. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 421-422 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2012.06.029	journal	December 2012
The porous structure of the fully-aromatic polyamide film in reverse osmosis membranes Yan, Hao; Miao, Xiaopei; Xu, Jian Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 475 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2014.10.052	journal	February 2015
Probing the internal structure of reverse osmosis membranes by positron annihilation spectroscopy: Gaining more insight into the transport of water and small solutes Fujioka, Takahiro; Oshima, Nagayasu; Suzuki, Ryoichi Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 486 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2015.02.007	journal	July 2015
Hydration of a polyamide reverse-osmosis membrane Ding, Minxia; Szymczyk, Anthony; Ghoufi, Aziz Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 501 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2015.12.036	journal	March 2016
Rejection mechanisms for contaminants in polyamide reverse osmosis membranes Shen, Meng; Keten, Sinan; Lueptow, Richard M. Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 509 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.02.043	journal	July 2016
Molecular simulations of polyamide membrane materials used in desalination and water reuse applications: Recent developments and future prospects Ridgway, Harry F.; Orbell, John; Gray, Stephen Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 524 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.11.061	journal	February 2017
Transport of small and neutral solutes through reverse osmosis membranes: Role of skin layer conformation of the polyamide film Fujioka, Takahiro; O'Rourke, Brian E.; Michishio, Koji Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 554 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2018.02.069	journal	May 2018
Morphology and porous structure of standalone aromatic polyamide films as used in RO membranes – An exploration with SANS, PALS, and SEM Pipich, Vitaliy; Schlenstedt, Kornelia; Dickmann, Marcel Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2018.11.055	journal	March 2019
Impact and progress in small and wide angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS) Graewert, Melissa A.; Svergun, Dmitri I. Current Opinion in Structural Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2013.06.007	journal	October 2013
Rejection of small and uncharged chemicals of emerging concern by reverse osmosis membranes: The role of free volume space within the active skin layer Fujioka, Takahiro; Oshima, Nagayasu; Suzuki, Ryoichi Separation and Purification Technology, Vol. 116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2013.06.015	journal	September 2013
GROMACS: High performance molecular simulations through multi-level parallelism from laptops to supercomputers Abraham, Mark James; Murtola, Teemu; Schulz, Roland SoftwareX, Vol. 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2015.06.001	journal	September 2015
Aromatic Polyamide Reverse-Osmosis Membrane: An Atomistic Molecular Dynamics Simulation Wei, Tao; Zhang, Lin; Zhao, Haiyang The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 120, Issue 39 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b06560	journal	September 2016
Atomistic Simulations of Biofouling and Molecular Transfer of a Cross-linked Aromatic Polyamide Membrane for Desalination Jahan Sajib, Md Symon; Wei, Ying; Mishra, Ankit Langmuir, Vol. 36, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01308	journal	May 2020
Self-Assembled Monolayers of an Azobenzene Derivative on Silica and Their Interactions with Lysozyme Wei, Tao; Sajib, Md. Symon Jahan; Samieegohar, Mohammadreza Langmuir, Vol. 31, Issue 50 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b03603	journal	December 2015
Quantifying Carboxylic Acid Concentration in Model Polyamide Desalination Membranes via Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy Zimudzi, Tawanda J.; Feldman, Kathleen E.; Sturnfield, James F. Macromolecules, Vol. 51, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.8b01194	journal	August 2018
Molecular Structure of Aromatic Reverse Osmosis Polyamide Barrier Layers Fu, Qinyi; Verma, Nisha; Ma, Hongyang ACS Macro Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.9b00077	journal	March 2019
Evolution of Composite Reverse Osmosis Membranes Cadotte, John E. Materials Science of Synthetic Membranes https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-1985-0269.ch012	book	December 1985
Small-Angle X-ray Scattering of Polymers Chu, Benjamin; Hsiao, Benjamin S. Chemical Reviews, Vol. 101, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1021/cr9900376	journal	June 2001
Optimization of the Additive CHARMM All-Atom Protein Force Field Targeting Improved Sampling of the Backbone ϕ, ψ and Side-Chain χ ₁ and χ ₂ Dihedral Angles Best, Robert B.; Zhu, Xiao; Shim, Jihyun Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 8, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/ct300400x	journal	August 2012
Strong Surface Hydration and Salt Resistant Mechanism of a New Nonfouling Zwitterionic Polymer Based on Protein Stabilizer TMAO Huang, Hao; Zhang, Chengcheng; Crisci, Ralph Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 143, Issue 40 https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c08280	journal	September 2021
Kinetics of Film Formation by Interfacial Polycondensation Freger, Viatcheslav Langmuir, Vol. 21, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/la048085v	journal	March 2005
CHARMM36m: an improved force field for folded and intrinsically disordered proteins Huang, Jing; Rauscher, Sarah; Nawrocki, Grzegorz Nature Methods, Vol. 14, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4067	journal	November 2016
Multimodal confined water dynamics in reverse osmosis polyamide membranes Foglia, Fabrizia; Frick, Bernhard; Nania, Manuela Nature Communications, Vol. 13, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30555-6	journal	May 2022
Canonical sampling through velocity rescaling Bussi, Giovanni; Donadio, Davide; Parrinello, Michele The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2408420	journal	January 2007
Particle mesh Ewald: An N ⋅log( N ) method for Ewald sums in large systems Darden, Tom; York, Darrin; Pedersen, Lee The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 98, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.464397	journal	June 1993
An automated spin-assisted approach for molecular layer-by-layer assembly of crosslinked polymer thin films Chan, Edwin P.; Lee, Jung-Hyun; Chung, Jun Young Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4767289	journal	November 2012
X-ray Scattering Studies of Reverse Osmosis Materials Fu, Q.; Verma, N.; Hsiao, B. S. Synchrotron Radiation News, Vol. 33, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/08940886.2020.1784700	journal	August 2020
X-ray scattering factors computed from numerical Hartree–Fock wave functions Cromer, D. T.; Mann, J. B. Acta Crystallographica Section A, Vol. 24, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1107/S0567739468000550	journal	March 1968
Water transport in reverse osmosis membranes is governed by pore flow, not a solution-diffusion mechanism Wang, Li; He, Jinlong; Heiranian, Mohammad Science Advances, Vol. 9, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf8488	journal	April 2023
Sub-10 nm polyamide nanofilms with ultrafast solvent transport for molecular separation Karan, S.; Jiang, Z.; Livingston, A. G. Science, Vol. 348, Issue 6241 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa5058	journal	June 2015
3D printed polyamide membranes for desalination Chowdhury, Maqsud R.; Steffes, James; Huey, Bryan D. Science, Vol. 361, Issue 6403 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar2122	journal	August 2018
Polymeric structures at interfaces: An X-ray scattering study Panagiotou, Panteleimon; Bauer, Estelle; Loi, Simona Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials, Vol. 219, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1524/zkri.219.4.210.30444	journal	April 2004

Similar Records

Ionic Liquid-Mediated Interfacial Polymerization for Fabrication of Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Journal Article · Sun Oct 30 20:00:00 EDT 2022 · Membranes · OSTI ID:2470317

Calcium Sulfate and Calcium Carbonate Scaling of Thin-Film Composite Polyamide Reverse Osmosis Membranes with Surface-Tethered Polyacrylic Acid Chains

Journal Article · Sun Dec 18 19:00:00 EST 2022 · Membranes · OSTI ID:2471209

Molecular Structure of Aromatic Reverse Osmosis Polyamide Barrier Layers

Journal Article · Wed Mar 13 20:00:00 EDT 2019 · ACS Macro Letters · OSTI ID:1502806

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Humidity
Membranes
Molecules
Scattering
Thin films

Grazing Incidence Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering of Water Adsorption in Polyamide Barrier Layers of Reverse Osmosis Membranes

Citation Formats

References (42)

Similar Records

Related Subjects