Reinforcing the polybenzimidazole membrane surface by an ultrathin co-crosslinked polydopamine layer for organic solvent nanofiltration applications

Preparation of a Solvent-Resistant Nanofiltration Membrane of Liquefied Walnut Shell Modified by Ethylenediamine

N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) has excellent chemical stability and is widely used as an aprotic polar solvent. In order to reduce production costs and reduce pollution to the surrounding environment, it is necessary to recycle and reuse DMF. Previous research has found that the thin film composite nanofiltration membrane prepared from liquefied walnut shells exhibited a high rejection rate in DMF, but relatively low permeance and mechanical strength. In order to increase permeance without compromising the separation performance, ethylenediamine (EDA) is used as a modifier to graft onto the structure of liquefied walnut shell through the Mannich reaction. Then, modified liquefied walnut shell as an aqueous monomer reacts with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) via the interfacial polymerization method on the EDA-crosslinked polyetherimide (PEI) membrane. The results show that the permeance of the prepared membrane is significantly improved by an order of magnitude, demonstrating a rejection rate of 98% for crystal violet (CV), and a permeance of 3.53 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 in DMF. In conclusion, this study reveals the potential of utilizing liquefied walnut shells as raw materials for preparing high-performance separation membranes and demonstrates that surface modification is a feasible approach to enhance permeance of membranes without sacrificing the rejection rate.

Improving the Separation Properties of Polybenzimidazole Membranes by Adding Acetonitrile for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

In research on membranes, the addition of co-solvents to the polymer dope solution is a common method for tuning the morphology and separation performance. For organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) applications, we synthesized polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes with high separation properties and stability by adding acetonitrile (MeCN) to the dope solution, followed by crosslinking with dibromo-p-xylene. Accordingly, changes in the membrane structure and separation properties were investigated when MeCN was added. PBI/MeCN membranes with a dense and thick active layer and narrow finger-like macrovoids exhibited superior rejection properties in the ethanol solution compared with the pristine PBI membrane. After crosslinking, they displayed superior rejection properties (96.56% rejection of 366-g/mol polypropylene glycol). In addition, the membranes demonstrated stable permeances for various organic solvents, including acetone, methanol, ethanol, toluene, and isopropyl alcohol. Furthermore, to evaluate the feasibility of the modified PBI OSN membranes, ecamsule, a chemical product in the fine chemical industry, was recovered. Correspondingly, the efficient recovery of ecamsule from a toluene/methanol solution using the OSN process with PBI/MeCN membranes demonstrated their applicability in many fine chemical industries.

The effects of process parameters on polydopamine coatings employed in tissue engineering applications

The biomaterials’ success within the tissue engineering field is hinged on the capability to regulate tissue and cell responses, comprising cellular adhesion, as well as repair and immune processes’ induction. In an attempt to enhance and fulfill these biomaterials’ functions, scholars have been inspired by nature; in this regard, surface modification via coating the biomaterials with polydopamine is one of the most successful inspirations endowing the biomaterials with surface adhesive properties. By employing this approach, favorable results have been achieved in various tissue engineering-related experiments, a significant one of which is the more rapid cellular growth observed on the polydopamine-coated substrates compared to the untreated ones; nonetheless, some considerations regarding polydopamine-coated surfaces should be taken into account to control the ultimate outcomes. In this mini-review, the importance of coatings in the tissue engineering field, the different types of surfaces requiring coatings, the significance of polydopamine coatings, critical factors affecting the result of the coating procedure, and recent investigations concerning applications of polydopamine-coated biomaterials in tissue engineering are thoroughly discussed.

Insights into the impact of polydopamine modification on permeability and anti-fouling performance of forward osmosis membrane

Forward osmosis (FO) has drawn wide attention as a promising method to address world-wide water crisis due to the advantages of low-energy consumption and easy separation operation. Unfortunately, the trade-off between permeability and selectivity as well as membrane fouling hindered the application of forward osmosis. Surface modification is a feasible method to address these issues. However, there is a lack of systematic evaluation about the effect of modification position on FO performance due to the asymmetric structure of thin film composite (TFC) FO membrane. To provide new insights into the design of FO membrane with satisfied permeability and fouling resistance, novel TFC FO membranes were fabricated by introducing polydopamine (PDA) on the support layer (TFC-I) or active layer (TFC-S), respectively. The surface morphology, chemical composition and wettability of the fabricated membrane were studied. It was found that the surface wettability of the modified membrane was improved greatly compared to pristine TFC membrane (TFC-C). Moreover, TFC-S membrane displayed a rougher surface than that of TFC-I membrane. As a result, a superior TFC-S membrane with a water flux of 60.95 ± 3.15 L m^-2h^-1 in AL-DS mode was obtained, which was 72.61% and 17.87% higher than that of TFC-C and TFC-I membrane, respectively. In addition, the TFC-S membrane also presented an excellent fouling resistance and membrane regeneration performance during the three organic fouling cycle experiments. The results indicated that the introduction of PDA as a surface coating for TFC membranes modification guaranteed the high-performance and fouling resistance. Especially, the PDA coating on the support layer surface resulted in an enhancement in permeability, while both the permeability and anti-fouling performance were significantly improved with the PDA coating on the polyamide active layer surface. This study provides new insights into the development of modification TFC-FO membranes for practical applications in water treatment.