Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Nanoparticle-embedded nanofibers in highly permselective thin-film nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis

Abstract

Here we report a scalable approach to fabricate osmotic membranes with high permselectivity based on nanocomposite of mesoporous silica nanoparticles and nanofibers by electrospinning. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images provide visualization of dispersed and clustered nanoparticles embedding within or at the surface of nanofibers. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) point analysis confirms the chemical identity of the nanocomposite structure. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses show a 75-fold increase in specific surface area when 15% of silica nanoparticles were integrated into polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous mats. Mechanical strength tests show that even at high load of silica nanoparticles, e.g. 15 wt%, the mechanical integrity of the membranes was maintained. Incorporating nanoparticles into nanofibrous mats enhanced their water uptake up to two times. In osmotic transport studies, we observed an outstanding permselectivity of our membranes compared to ones reported in literature. Our membranes show a remarkable 7-fold and 3.5-fold enhancements in osmotic water permeability and water/sodium chloride selectivity, respectively, compared to standard commercial forward osmosis membranes. These results suggest a pathway to develop scalable, high performance osmotic membranes and to further study the predominant mechanism governing transport behaviors of water and solute across nanomaterials interfaces.

Authors:
 [1];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
  2. Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1497312
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-736683
Journal ID: ISSN 0376-7388; 889568
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Membrane Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 518; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0376-7388
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING

Citation Formats

Bui, Nhu-Ngoc, and McCutcheon, Jeffrey R. Nanoparticle-embedded nanofibers in highly permselective thin-film nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2016.06.024.
Copy to clipboard
Bui, Nhu-Ngoc, & McCutcheon, Jeffrey R. Nanoparticle-embedded nanofibers in highly permselective thin-film nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.06.024
Copy to clipboard
Bui, Nhu-Ngoc, and McCutcheon, Jeffrey R. Thu . "Nanoparticle-embedded nanofibers in highly permselective thin-film nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.06.024. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1497312.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1497312,
title = {Nanoparticle-embedded nanofibers in highly permselective thin-film nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis},
author = {Bui, Nhu-Ngoc and McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.},
abstractNote = {Here we report a scalable approach to fabricate osmotic membranes with high permselectivity based on nanocomposite of mesoporous silica nanoparticles and nanofibers by electrospinning. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images provide visualization of dispersed and clustered nanoparticles embedding within or at the surface of nanofibers. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) point analysis confirms the chemical identity of the nanocomposite structure. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses show a 75-fold increase in specific surface area when 15% of silica nanoparticles were integrated into polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous mats. Mechanical strength tests show that even at high load of silica nanoparticles, e.g. 15 wt%, the mechanical integrity of the membranes was maintained. Incorporating nanoparticles into nanofibrous mats enhanced their water uptake up to two times. In osmotic transport studies, we observed an outstanding permselectivity of our membranes compared to ones reported in literature. Our membranes show a remarkable 7-fold and 3.5-fold enhancements in osmotic water permeability and water/sodium chloride selectivity, respectively, compared to standard commercial forward osmosis membranes. These results suggest a pathway to develop scalable, high performance osmotic membranes and to further study the predominant mechanism governing transport behaviors of water and solute across nanomaterials interfaces.},
doi = {10.1016/j.memsci.2016.06.024},
journal = {Journal of Membrane Science},
number = C,
volume = 518,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.06.024
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 57 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: (A) Schematic diagrams of: mesoporous silica nanoparticles (left, adapted from [78]), clusters of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (right, adapted from [57]) and their dispersion in nanofibers in our hypothesis (right); (B), (E) representative transmission electron microscope (TEM) image of: (B) as-received mesoporous silica nanoparticles and (E) nanoparticle-embedded PAN nanofibers;more » (C), (D), (G) representative FESEM images of: (C) silica nanoparticles-embedded PAN nanofibrous mats, (D) zoom-in nanocomposite domains where fibers are embedded with silica nanoparticles or clusters and (G) surface morphology of polyamide selective layer deposited on PAN-SiO2 nanocomposite; (F) energy-dispersive X-ray point analysis showing the chemical identity of the selected PAN-SiO2« less
All figures and tables (7 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades
journal, March 2008

  • Shannon, Mark A.; Bohn, Paul W.; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Nature, Vol. 452, Issue 7185, p. 301-310
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature06599

Water: Purification with a pinch of salt
journal, March 2008

The Future of Seawater Desalination: Energy, Technology, and the Environment
journal, August 2011

Recent developments in forward osmosis: Opportunities and challenges
journal, April 2012

Membrane-based processes for sustainable power generation using water
journal, August 2012

Production of Electric Power by mixing Fresh and Salt Water in the Hydroelectric Pile
journal, October 1954

Osmotic Power Plants
journal, August 1975

Membrane-based production of salinity-gradient power
journal, January 2011

  • Ramon, Guy Z.; Feinberg, Benjamin J.; Hoek, Eric M. V.
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 4, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1039/c1ee01913a

Energy recovery from concentrated seawater brine by thin-film nanofiber composite pressure retarded osmosis membranes with high power density
journal, January 2013

  • Song, Xiaoxiao; Liu, Zhaoyang; Sun, Darren Delai
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 6, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1039/c3ee23349a

Module-Scale Analysis of Pressure Retarded Osmosis: Performance Limitations and Implications for Full-Scale Operation
journal, September 2014

  • Straub, Anthony P.; Lin, Shihong; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 48, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1021/es503790k

Internal polarization in the porous substructure of a semipermeable membrane under pressure-retarded osmosis
journal, January 1978

Influence of concentrative and dilutive internal concentration polarization on flux behavior in forward osmosis
journal, November 2006

Influence of membrane support layer hydrophobicity on water flux in osmotically driven membrane processes
journal, June 2008

  • McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Journal of Membrane Science, Vol. 318, Issue 1-2, p. 458-466
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2008.03.021

Internal concentration polarization in forward osmosis: role of membrane orientation
journal, October 2006

Proper accounting of mass transfer resistances in forward osmosis: Improving the accuracy of model predictions of structural parameter
journal, October 2015

Hydrophilic Nanofibers as New Supports for Thin Film Composite Membranes for Engineered Osmosis
journal, February 2013

  • Bui, Nhu-Ngoc; McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 47, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1021/es304215g

Surface modification of thin film composite membrane support layers with polydopamine: Enabling use of reverse osmosis membranes in pressure retarded osmosis
journal, June 2011

Novel hydrophilic nylon 6,6 microfiltration membrane supported thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis
journal, June 2013

Nanofibers in thin-film composite membrane support layers: Enabling expanded application of forward and pressure retarded osmosis
journal, January 2013

Hydrophilic nylon 6,6 nanofibers supported thin film composite membranes for engineered osmosis
journal, May 2014

Preparation of polyamide thin film composite forward osmosis membranes using electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers as substrates
journal, October 2013

Nanofiber Supported Thin-Film Composite Membrane for Pressure-Retarded Osmosis
journal, March 2014

  • Bui, Nhu-Ngoc; McCutcheon, Jeffrey R.
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 48, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1021/es4037012

Impacts of reaction and curing conditions on polyamide composite reverse osmosis membrane properties
journal, March 2008

Spherical silica agglomerates possessing hierarchical porosity prepared by spray drying of MCM-41 and MCM-48 nanospheres
journal, December 2003

  • Lind, Anna; du Fresne von Hohenesche, Cedric; Smått, Jan-Henrik
  • Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, Vol. 66, Issue 2-3
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.micromeso.2003.09.011

Molecular Simulations of Water Adsorbed on Mesoporous Silica Thin Films
journal, January 2013

  • Yamashita, Kyohei; Daiguji, Hirofumi
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 117, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp312804c

Adsorption of water vapor and hydrophobicity of ordered mesoporous silica, FSM-16
journal, May 1998

Synthesis of novel silica-polyamide nanocomposite membrane with enhanced properties
journal, February 2009

Periodic mesoporous organic–inorganic hybrid materials: Applications in membrane separations and adsorption
journal, July 2010

Water Stability and Adsorption in Metal–Organic Frameworks
journal, September 2014

  • Burtch, Nicholas C.; Jasuja, Himanshu; Walton, Krista S.
  • Chemical Reviews, Vol. 114, Issue 20, p. 10575-10612
  • DOI: 10.1021/cr5002589

Novel compaction resistant and ductile nanocomposite nanofibrous microfiltration membranes
journal, April 2012

  • Homaeigohar, Seyed Shahin; Elbahri, Mady
  • Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol. 372, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2012.01.012

Using nanocomposite materials technology to understand and control reverse osmosis membrane compaction
journal, October 2010

Recent advances in reverse osmosis membranes
journal, December 1973

The effect of processing variables on the morphology of electrospun nanofibers and textiles
journal, January 2001

Transport properties of electrospun nylon 6 nonwoven mats
journal, September 2003

Surface Structures and Contact Angles of Electrospun Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Nanofiber Membranes
journal, August 2008

  • Huang, Fenlin; Wei, Qufu; Cai, Yibing
  • International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization, Vol. 13, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1080/10236660802190963

Standard Methodology for Evaluating Membrane Performance in Osmotically Driven Membrane Processes
journal, March 2013

Reverse Draw Solute Permeation in Forward Osmosis: Modeling and Experiments
journal, July 2010

  • Phillip, William A.; Yong, Jui Shan; Elimelech, Menachem
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 44, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1021/es100901n

Solute Coupled Diffusion in Osmotically Driven Membrane Processes
journal, July 2009

  • Hancock, Nathan T.; Cath, Tzahi Y.
  • Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 43, Issue 17
  • DOI: 10.1021/es901132x

Coupled reverse draw solute permeation and water flux in forward osmosis with neutral draw solutes
journal, March 2012

Water permeability and water/salt selectivity tradeoff in polymers for desalination
journal, March 2011

Effect of substrate structure on the performance of thin-film composite forward osmosis hollow fiber membranes
journal, October 2011

Characterization of novel forward osmosis hollow fiber membranes
journal, June 2010

Thin-film composite hollow fiber membranes for pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process with high power density
journal, February 2012

Molecular layer-by-layer assembled forward osmosis membranes
journal, August 2015

Preparation of a forward osmosis membrane using a highly porous polyketone microfiltration membrane as a novel support
journal, August 2015

Graphene oxide modified graphitic carbon nitride as a modifier for thin film composite forward osmosis membrane
journal, February 2015

Thin film nanocomposite forward osmosis membranes based on layered double hydroxide nanoparticles blended substrates
journal, April 2016

Graphene oxide incorporated polysulfone substrate for the fabrication of flat-sheet thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes
journal, November 2015

Surface modified PVDF nanofiber supported thin film composite membranes for forward osmosis
journal, February 2016

Novel cellulose ester substrates for high performance flat-sheet thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes
journal, January 2015

Hydroxyl Functionalized Polytriazole- co -polyoxadiazole as Substrates for Forward Osmosis Membranes
journal, February 2015

  • Duong, Phuoc H. H.; Chisca, Stefan; Hong, Pei-Ying
  • ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 7, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1021/am508387d

Nanocomposite substrates for controlling internal concentration polarization in forward osmosis membranes
journal, August 2013

Developing thin-film-composite forward osmosis membranes on the PES/SPSf substrate through interfacial polymerization
journal, April 2011

  • Wang, Kai Yu; Chung, Tai-Shung; Amy, Gary
  • AIChE Journal, Vol. 58, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1002/aic.12635

The role of sulphonated polymer and macrovoid-free structure in the support layer for thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes
journal, November 2011

Thin-Film Composite Membranes and Formation Mechanism of Thin-Film Layers on Hydrophilic Cellulose Acetate Propionate Substrates for Forward Osmosis Processes
journal, March 2012

  • Li, Xue; Wang, Kai Yu; Helmer, Bradley
  • Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 51, Issue 30
  • DOI: 10.1021/ie2027052

Thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes with novel hydrophilic supports for desalination
journal, December 2012

Molecular design of the cellulose ester-based forward osmosis membranes for desalination
journal, May 2011

Characteristics and potential applications of a novel forward osmosis hollow fiber membrane
journal, October 2010

Study on the Adsorption Mechanism of DNA with Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles in Aqueous Solution
journal, January 2012

  • Li, Xu; Zhang, Jixi; Gu, Hongchen
  • Langmuir, Vol. 28, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1021/la204443j
    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Review: applications, effects and the prospects for electrospun nanofibrous mats in membrane separation
    journal, September 2019

    Engineering arrangement of nanoparticles within nanocomposite membranes matrix: a suggested way to enhance water flux
    journal, December 2019

    • Monsef, Kamalodin; Homayoonfal, Maryam; Davar, Fatemeh
    • Polymer-Plastics Technology and Materials, Vol. 59, Issue 7
    • DOI: 10.1080/25740881.2019.1695264

    A review on organic–inorganic hybrid nanocomposite membranes: a versatile tool to overcome the barriers of forward osmosis
    journal, January 2018

    • Sun, Wanying; Shi, Jie; Chen, Cheng
    • RSC Advances, Vol. 8, Issue 18
    • DOI: 10.1039/c7ra12835e

    Engineering arrangement of nanoparticles within nanocomposite membranes matrix: a suggested way to enhance water flux
    text, January 2019

    Engineering arrangement of nanoparticles within nanocomposite membranes matrix: a suggested way to enhance water flux
    text, January 2019

    Impact of Cross-Linked Chitosan Sublayer Structure on the Performance of TFC FO PAN Nanofiber Membranes
    journal, October 2018

      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      Figure 1 (p. 5)figure
      Figure 2 (p. 6)figure
      Table 1 (p. 6)table
      Figure 3 (p. 7)figure
      Figure 4 (p. 8)figure
      Figure 5 (p. 9)figure
      Figure 6 (p. 9)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: