Scalable Ti3C2Tx MXene Interlayered Forward Osmosis Membranes for Enhanced Water Purification and Organic Solvent Recovery

The design of nanosheets interlayer between the substrate and polyamide layer has attracted growing attention to improve the performance of thin-film composite membranes. However, the membrane size is limited by current fabrication methods such as vacuum filtration. Herein, a high-performance MXene (Ti3C2Tx) interlayered polyamide forward osmosis (FO) membrane is fabricated based on a combination of a facile and scalable brush-coating of MXene on nylon substrates and the interfacial polymerization process. The as-prepared FO membrane shows high water permeability of 31.8 L m–2 h–1 and low specific salt flux of 0.27 g L–1 using 2.0 mol L–1 sodium chloride as the draw solution. This is attributed to the adjustment of substrate properties and the polyamide layer by coating of MXene as well as the facilitation of water transportation by the interlayer distances between Ti3C2Tx. The membrane also exhibits a good organic solvent forward osmosis performance with high ethanol flux as 9.5 L m–2 h–1 and low specific salt flux of 0.4 g L–1 using 2.0 mol L–1 lithium chloride as the draw solution. Moreover, the MXene interlayered FO membrane demonstrates a feasible application in real seawater desalination and industrial textile wastewater treatment. This work presents an effective approach to fabricating nanomaterials interlayered FO membranes with superior performance for both desalination and organic solvent recovery.