Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Volume 51, Issue 8, Pages 4396-4406Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06411
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation through the Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment [ERC-1449500]
- China Scholarship Council
- Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering (YINQE)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We investigated the relationship between membrane surface properties and silica scaling in reverse osmosis (RO). The effects of membrane hydrophilicity, free energy for heterogeneous nucleation, and surface charge on silica scaling were examined by comparing thin-film composite polyamide membranes grafted with a variety of polymers. Results show that the rate of silica scaling was independent of both membrane hydrophilicity and free energy for heterogeneous nucleation. In contrast, membrane surface charge demonstrated a strong correlation with the extent of silica scaling (R-2 > 0.95, p < 0.001). Positively charged membranes significantly facilitated silica scaling, whereas a more negative membrane surface charge led to reduced scaling. This observation suggests that deposition of negatively charged silica species on the membrane surface plays a critical role in silica scale formation. Our findings provide fundamental insights into the mechanisms governing silica scaling in reverse osmosis and highlight the potential of membrane surface modification as a strategy to reduce silica scaling.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available