51. Biomimetic artificial water channel membranes for enhanced desalination
- Author
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Rachid Sougrat, Suzana Pereira Nunes, Maria Di Vincenzo, Stefan Chisca, Valentina-Elena Musteata, Mihail Barboiu, Li-Bo Huang, Alberto Tiraferri, Institut Européen des membranes (IEM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier (ENSCM)-Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques (UM2)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Université de Montpellier (UM), Politecnico di Torino = Polytechnic of Turin (Polito), and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
- Subjects
Materials science ,Biomimetic membranes ,Composite number ,Biomedical Engineering ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Bioengineering ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Desalination ,General Materials Science ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Boron ,[SDE.IE]Environmental Sciences/Environmental Engineering ,[CHIM.MATE]Chemical Sciences/Material chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Interfacial polymerization ,6. Clean water ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,0104 chemical sciences ,Membrane ,Water channel ,Chemical engineering ,chemistry ,Polyamide ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Inspired by biological proteins, artificial water channels (AWCs) can be used to overcome the performances of traditional desalination membranes. Their rational incorporation in composite polyamide provides an example of biomimetic membranes applied under representative reverse osmosis desalination conditions with an intrinsically high water-to-salt permeability ratio. The hybrid polyamide presents larger voids and seamlessly incorporates I–quartet AWCs for highly selective transport of water. These biomimetic membranes can be easily scaled for industrial standards (>m2), provide 99.5% rejection of NaCl or 91.4% rejection of boron, with a water flux of 75 l m−2 h−1 at 65 bar and 35,000 ppm NaCl feed solution, representative of seawater desalination. This flux is more than 75% higher than that observed with current state-of-the-art membranes with equivalent solute rejection, translating into an equivalent reduction of the membrane area for the same water output and a roughly 12% reduction of the required energy for desalination. Inspired by biological models, I–quartet artificial water channels can be incorporated in composite polyamide membranes synthesized via interfacial polymerization, providing biomimetic membranes for desalination.
- Published
- 2020