Performance evaluation of nanofiltration membrane prepared from interfacial polymerization technique and single step fabrication process

Abstract

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes were first introduced during the late 1960s, for water filtration and purification. The first generation of NF membranes was generally known as open reverse osmosis (RO) or tight ultrafiltration (UF) membranes before it was being classified as NF membranes. Similar to other pressure driven membrane processes, pressure is required for the filtration process during NF treatment which typically using pressures between 5 and 30 bar. Starting in the early 1990s, the number of research activities in the field of NF membrane resulting in patent applications and issued patents has increased rapidly, by a factor of six, leading to the development of innovative materials, advanced properties, and an increased number of applications spanning many industrial sectors such as water and wastewater treatment, food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical and biomedical process and others (Gagliardi, 2007). The growing interest in the utilization of NF membranes primarily stems from their unique characteristics in the rejection of small organic molecules (200 to 1000 Dalton) and multivalent salts, making them particularly well suited for specific applications, as a low-cost alternative to RO. The objective of this paper is to study the research works concerning the differences in NF membrane preparation that have been recently carried out by membrane scientists, targeting to enhance the NF membrane performances both in permeability and separation. It will be followed by the performance evaluation of the NF membrane prepared from different fabrication technique.