The synthesis of polymers for use as reverse osmosis membranes-I

✍ Scribed by G. Maconochie; A. Sharples; G. Thompson

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 827 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0014-3057
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-3057(71)90082-6

✦ Synopsis

Criteria have been established for the synthesis of new polymer s)~tems, suitable for use in connection with the preparation of reverse osmosis membranes. Using these criteria, a number of systems has been studied; the most satisfactory of these has been shown to behave in a comparable way to cellulose acetate in terms of flux characteristics, but with improved resistance to alkaline degradation. Cellulose acetate is the only polymer, discovered empirically, which is at present capable of being used commercially as a membrane for the removal of sodium chloride from saline solutions, and so the present observations are of considerable relevance to the design of new and improved systems.

The practical behaviour of any membrane depends both on its chemical and physical structure. The present paper is concerned with establishing inherent behaviour for a range of chemically different polymers, and includes data obtained on standard physical structures, utilizing homogeneous, porefree membranes. In practice these membranes are slow, and the problem of obtaining high-flux versions of these polymers based on suitably modified physical structures, is dealt with in a later paper.