High flux Mg2+/Li+ nanofiltration membranes prepared by surface modification of polyethylenimine thin film composite membranes

Nanofiltration plays emerging roles in lithium extraction from salt-lake brines with high magnesium-to-lithium (Mg2+/Li+) ratio, yet current lithium extraction nanofiltration membranes show relatively low water permeability. A new monomer (1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1,3,5,7-tetraazaadamantane-1-ium bromide, HMTAB) was designed to improve membrane separation performances by means of surface modification. Infrared characterizations show that the HMTAB monomer was anchored the pristine polyethylenimine (PEI) thin film composite membrane through esterification condensation. Average roughness of the HMTAB membrane is relatively small (5.7 nm), while the thickness of the top-layer was increased by similar to 20%, i.e., from 90 to 110 nm. Water flux of the HMTAB membrane in filtrating Mg2+/Li+ mixture (2000 ppm, Mg2+/Li+ : 100) at 6 bar pressure is 97.9 L M(-2)h(-1) , which is 3.6 times as high as the pristine PEI membrane. Meanwhile, the Mg2+/Li+ ion selectivity of the HMTAB membrane is maintained, and the membrane reduced the high Mg2+/Li+ ratio (50) in the feed to a relatively low value (4.9) in the permeate. Last, the modified membrane exhibits stable performance in 40 h(-1) continuous nanofiltration.

Automated summary

A new monomer HMTAB was designed to improve the performance of lithium extraction nanofiltration membranes, showing higher water flux and stable performance in the experiment.