Nanovoid Membranes Embedded with Hollow Zwitterionic Nanocapsules for a Superior Desalination Performance

In order to lower the capital and operational cost of desalination and wastewater treatment processes, nanofiltration (NF) membranes need to have a high water permeation and ionic rejection, while also maintaining a stable performance through antifouling resistance. Recently, Turing-type reaction conditions [Science 2018, 360, 518–521] and sacrificed metal organic frame (MOF) nanoparticles [Nat. Commun. 2018, 9, 2004] have been reported to introduce nanovoids into thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide (PA) NF membranes for an improved performance. Herein, we report a one-step fabrication of thin-film nanocomposite membranes (TFNM) with controllable nanovoids in the polyamide layer by introducing hollow zwitterionic nanocapsules (HZNCs) during interfacial polymerization. It was found that embedding HZNCs increases the membrane internal free volume, external surface area, and hydrophilicity, thus enhancing the water permeation and antifouling resistance without trading off the rejection of multivalent ions. For example, water permeation of the NF membranes embedded with about 19.0 wt % of HZNCs (73 L m–2 h–1) increased by 70% relative to the value of the control TFC NF membrane without HZNCs (43 L m–2 h–1). This increase comes while also maintaining 95% rejection of Na2SO4. Further, we also determined the effect of the mass loading of HZNCs on the top surface of the TFC NF membranes on the membrane performance. This work provided a direct and simple route to fabricate advanced desalination membranes with a superior separation performance.