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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Three-Dimensionally Printed Microfluidic Cross-flow System for Ultrafiltration/Nanofiltration Membrane Performance Testing
Published on: February 13, 2016
Polysulfone/Polyamide-SiO₂ Composite Membrane with High Permeance for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration
Qin Liu1,2, Xing Wu3, Kaisong Zhang4
1Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China. qinliu@iue.ac.cn.
Abstract:
To improve the filtration performance and properties of organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes, we firstly introduce nanoporous silica (SiO₂) particles into the polyamide (PA) active layer of polysulfone (PSf) membrane via an interfacial polymerization process. Results from the study revealed that introduction of SiO₂ influenced the properties of PSf/PA-SiO₂ composite membranes by changing the surface roughness and hydrophilicity. Moreover, results also indicated that nanoporous SiO₂ modified membranes showed an improved performance of alcohols solvent permeance. The PSf/PA-SiO₂ composite membrane modified by 0.025 wt % of SiO₂ reached a permeance of 3.29 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 for methanol and 0.42 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 for ethanol, which were 20.0% and 13.5% higher than the control PSf membrane (permeance of 2.74 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 for methanol and 0.37 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 for ethanol). Conclusively, we demonstrated that the increase of membrane hydrophilicity and roughness were major factors contributing to the improved alcohols solvent permeance of the membranes.
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