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The forward osmosis (FO) process has been considered to be a viable option for water desalination in comparison to the traditional processes like reverse osmosis, regarding energy consumption and economical operation. In this work, a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber support layer was prepared using the electrospinning process as a modern method. Then, an interfacial polymerization reaction between m -phenylenediamine (MPD) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) was carried out to generate a polyamide selective thin-film composite (TFC) membrane on the support layer. The TFC membrane was tested in FO mode (feed solution facing the active layer) using the standard methodology and compared to a commercially available cellulose triacetate membrane (CTA). The synthesized membrane showed a high performance in terms of water flux (16 Lm -2 h -1) but traded the salt rejection (4 gm -2 h -1) compared with the commercial CTA membrane (water flux = 13 Lm -2 h -1 and salt rejection = 3 gm -2 h -1) at no applied pressure and room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle, mechanical properties, porosity, and performance characterizations were conducted to examine the membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forward osmosis (FO) process has been considered as a viable option for water desalination in comparison to the traditional processes like reverse osmosis regarding the energy consumption and economical operation. In this work, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber support layer was prepared using electrospinning process as a modern method. Then, an interfacial polymerization reaction between m-phenylenediamine (MPD) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) was carried out to generate a polyamide selective thin film composite (TFC) membrane on the support layer. The TFC membrane was tested in FO mode (feed solution facing the active layer) using standard methodology and compared to a commercially available cellulose triacetate membrane (CTA). The synthesized membrane showed a high performance in terms of water flux (16 L m-2 h-1) but traded the salt rejection (4 g m-2 h-1) comparing with the commercially CTA membrane (water flux = 13 L m-2 h-1 and salt rejection = 3 g m-2 h-1) at no applied pressure and room temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle, mechanical properties, porosity, and performance characterizations were conducted to examine the membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]