Chlorine Resistant Glutaraldehyde Crosslinked Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Membranes for Desalination.

Advanced Materials, March 2015.

Kwun Lun Cho¹, Anita J. Hill², Frank Caruso^1,* and Sandra E. Kentish^1,*

 

1. ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
2. CSIRO, Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton, VIC, Australia.

ABSTRACT

Crosslinked polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes are synthesized with salt rejection values approaching those of commercial desalination membranes, but with increased chlorine resistance. The membranes are fabricated directly onto porous commercial substrates. Subsequent crosslinking of the polycation layers with glutaraldehyde leads to NaCl rejections of up to 97%, while the incorporation of a highly sulfonated polysulfone polyanion leads to high chlorine resistance.

Significance Statement: 

University of Melbourne researchers have developed new membranes that will result in clean water in a much more energy efficient manner. The  novel membrane technology uses layer-by-layer polymer assembly. The membrane materials are chlorine-resistant  therefore can cut out additional processing steps reducing operating costs. They can also prevent the decrease in water flow that is currently observed with time due to biological fouling.