Deswelling of ultrathin molecular layer-by-layer polyamide water desalination membranes

The selective layer of pressure-induced water desalination membranes is an ultrathin and highly crosslinked aromatic polyamide (PA) film that separates salt from water based on differences in permeability, which is a product of diffusivity and solubility. Characterizing the transport properties of the selective layer is necessary in understanding its permselective performance. However, measuring transport of ultrathin films in general is nontrivial. Here, Poroelastic Relaxation Indentation (PRI) is employed as a simple deswelling technique for measuring the transport properties of these ultrathin selective layers.