Polydopamine-modified HKUST-1 as nanofiller of PPS@PA membrane with well improved desalination performance

In order to improve the permeability and desalination performance of the thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes supported by polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), the polydopamine (PDA) modified HKUST-1 (mHKUST-1) nanocomposite materials were added into polyamide (PA) functional layer. The mHKUST-1 nanoparticles with good dispersity and chemical compatibility were successfully embedded in PA layer to develop a new negative charged nanofiltration membrane. The optimized PPS/[email protected] membrane showed an excellent permeability of up to 27.35 L∙m−2 h−1∙bar−1, twice as much as the [email protected] membranes. Meanwhile, the considerable rejection performance of 91.67% to MgSO4 and 90.06% to Na2SO4 at 4 bar was mainly up to the repulsive effect of negative charge on membrane surface. Moreover, the PPS/[email protected] membranes also has stable filtration performance under long time operation. The results suggested that the membrane modification method in this work have great potential for applications in desalination.