Interconnection of electrospun nanofibers via a post co-solvent treatment and its open pore size effect on pressure-retarded osmosis performance

• Published in: Macromolecular research Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 314 - 322
• Main Authors: Park, Chul Ho, Bae, Harim, Kwak, Sung Jo, Jang, Moon Seok, Lee, Jung-Hyun, Lee, Jonghwi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul The Polymer Society of Korea 01.04.2016; 한국고분자학회
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Nanochemistry; Nanotechnology; Physical Chemistry; Polymer Sciences; Soft and Granular Matter; 고분자공학; pressure-retarded osmosis; open pore size; electrospinning; salt flux; nanofiber support layer
• ISSN: 1598-5032; 2092-7673
• DOI: 10.1007/s13233-016-4044-2

Design of support layer structures for asymmetric thin film composite membranes has drawn keen attention to improve the power density for salinity gradient power based on pressure-retarded osmosis. This study has interests on electrospun nanofiber-based support layers, and the effects of its open pore sizes are attractively stated. To control the open pore size, a counter charge deposition method was introduced. To retain the open pore size, all the nanofibers were interconnected by a post co-solvent treatment technology. For a thin film composite membrane, an interfacial polymerization was used to fabricate a polyamide active layer on the electrospun nanofiber-based support layers. It was found that although the maximum power density achieved with an open pore size of 2.4 μm 2 was 0.14 W/m 2 , it increased significantly up to 9.5 W/m 2 when the pore size was reduced to 0.65 μm 2 . The cause is the salt flux which increases with increasing the open pore sizes under applied pressures.