Effect of Polydopamine/Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Modified Halloysite on the Microstructure and Permeability of a Polyamide Forward Osmosis Membrane

Membranes (Basel). 2023 Jun 30;13(7):638. doi: 10.3390/membranes13070638.

Abstract

Mine water cannot be directly consumed by trapped people when a mine collapses, so it is difficult for people to carry out emergency rescues to ensure their safety. Therefore, a water bag made of a forward osmosis (FO) membrane has been designed that can efficiently filter coal mine water to meet the urgent needs of emergency rescue. Before interfacial polymerization (IP), sodium-dodecyl-sulfate-modified halloysite (SDS-HNT) was added to an MPD aqueous solution to prepare an SDS-HNT polyamide active layer, and then the prepared membrane was placed into a polydopamine (PDA) solution formed by the self-polymerization of dopamine and a PDA/SDS-HNT composite film was prepared. The results showed that the original ridge-valley structure of the polyamide membrane was transformed to a rod-, circular-, and blade-like structure by the addition of SDS-HNTs. Subsequently, a dense PDA nanoparticle layer was formed on the modified membrane. The polyamide/polysulfone forward osmosis membrane modified by co-doping of PDA and SDS-HNTs displayed both the best water flux and rejection rate, confirming the synergistic effect of compound modification. Therefore, the high-performance permeability of the polyamide membrane modified by SDS-HNTs and PDA provides great convenience for the emergency filtration of coal mine water, and also has potential applications in wastewater treatment and seawater desalination.

Keywords: compound modification; emergency rescue; forward osmosis membrane; microstructure; permeability.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the key research and development project of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2021SF−469), the Open Project of Key Laboratory of New Marine Materials and Applied Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2018K01) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52175184).