Ho Bum's presentation at the North American Membrane Society's (NAMS) 2006 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, "Novel Sulfonated Poly(arylene ether) Copolymer Membranes and Their Use in Reverse Osmosis: Fundamental Water and Salt Transport Study, Chlorine Stability and Anti-Fouling Characteristics". Co-authors Ho Bum Park, Benny D. Freeman, J.E. McGrath, Z. Zhang, G. Fan, M. Sankir, A. Roy, H.S. Lee, and A. Badami.
Abstract
Recently, the interest in preparing new RO materials having excellent chlorine tolerance, similar or higher water flux and rejection and markedly reduced fouling relative to the conventional RO membranes is increasing. In the late 1980s, a few sulfonated polymers were reported to have promising RO properties and excellent chlorine tolerance, but the lack of control of the sulfonation process made the preparation of reproducible the materials challenging [1]. Recently, a systematic series of sulfonated poly(arylene ether) copolymer membranes developed at Virginia Tech have been prepared by directly copolymerizing a disulfonated monomer into the polymer backbone [2]. The present study focuses on exploring fundamental structure-property relationships in these materials. These polymers have excellent chlorine tolerance, low fouling in oily or protein-containing waters, and high water flux with moderate salt rejection. A fundamental study of salt diffusivity, solubility and permeability in these sulfonated copolymer membranes is providing basic information useful for molecular engineering these materials towards better property profiles.
[1] R.J. Petersen, “Composite Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membranes” J. Membrane Sci. (1993), 83, 81-150.
[2] M.A. Hickner, H. Ghassemi, Y.S. Kim, B. Einsla and J.E. McGrath, “Alternative Polymer Systems for Proton Exchange Membranes”, Chem. Rev. (2004), 104, 4587-4611 (2004 October 13).