(381az) A Thin Film Composite Membrane Prepared from Monomers of Guaiacol and Trimesoyl Chloride for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

The main drawback of OSN membrane is low flux in weak polar solvent such as THF. In this study, a naturally occurring monomer, guaiacol (GA) was adopted to synthetize a hydrophobic polyarylester; OSN membrane via interfacial polymerization with trimesoyl chloride on the ethylenediamine cross-linked poly(ether imide) substrate. The prepared membrane was proved by chemical characterizations such as ATR-FTIR, XPS etc., it is illustrated that the interfacial polymerization occurs among TMC and GA on the C-PEI support to generate the polyarylester layers with crosslinked structure as well as enhanced diffusion property. GA-TMC NF membrane is composed of polyarylester, and the further contact angles measurements revealed that the hydrophobicity of the membranes increased with the GA loading. Besides, the study on the relationship between the membrane permeance and the membrane-solvent solubility parameter distance were performed by Hansen solubility parameter methods. The optimal NF-3GA membrane exhibited a higher chemical stability in THF and superior separation performance with the rejection of 96% for RB and a THF permeance of 76 L m^-2 h^-1 MPa^-1. These results suggest a novel strategy to to select potential monomers to develop advanced membranes applicable to organic solution separation for future sustainable usages.