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Realizing Mussel-inspired Polydopamine Selective Layer with Strong Solvent Resistance in Nanofiltration towards Sustainable Reclamation Yanchao Xu, Fangjie You, Hongguang Sun, and Lu Shao ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., Just Accepted Manuscript • Publication Date (Web): 16 May 2017 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on May 18, 2017

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ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

Realizing Mussel-inspired Polydopamine Selective Layer with Strong Solvent Resistance in Nanofiltration towards Sustainable Reclamation

Yanchao Xu, Fangjie You, Hongguang Sun, Lu Shao*

MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 Xidazhi Street, Harbin 150001, China.

Mailing address of all the authors: 92 Xidazhi Street, Harbin 150001, China.

*Corresponding author: L. Shao. Tel: +86-451-86413711. Fax: +86-451-86418270. Email: [email protected]

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ACS Paragon Plus Environment


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KEYWORDS: Organic solvent nanofiltration, polydopamine, polyimide, crosslinking, membrane stability

ABSTRACT: Herein, mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) coating layer has been firstly explored as a separating layer for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). PDA based separating layer was constructed on polyimide (PI) support via dopamine coating. The subsequent membrane was then treated with 1,6-hexanediamine for crosslinking on both PDA layer and PI support. Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) results indicated the deposition of PDA on support and the crosslinked structures of both PDA and PI. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), water contact angle and surface energy measurements were further employed to characterize the morphologies and surface properties of the composite membranes. After an optimized coating time of 4 h, the resultant membrane showed an EtOH permeance of 0.91 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 and a RB rejection of 99%. More importantly, the composite membrane also exhibited good performance for dyes separation from a wide range of solvents including challenging polar aprotic and strongly swelling solvents, such as dimethylformamide and acetone. In addition to demonstrating a facile and effective OSN membrane fabrication approach, this study may stimulate the bio-inspired design of composite membrane for sustainable applications.

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INTRODUCTION Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is an relatively young pressure driven separation that possess the ability to fractionate components with a molecular weight between 200 and 1000 g mol-1 from organic solvents.1-3 As a promising alternative to traditional purification and separation technologies, such as distillation, extraction and chromatography, OSN has the merits of economy, environmental friendliness and safety. It has great application prospects in petrochemistry, fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. One of the main challenging issues in OSN is the membrane stability in organic solvent. Ceramic membranes are superior considering they do not swell or deform in organic solvents; however, their large scale fabrication is complicated, and they are more fragile and costly than polymeric membranes. For these reasons, most of the reported OSN membranes are made out of polymeric materials, and chemical crosslinking of the polymer is usually employed to achieve high stability in harsh solvent. So far, many polymer materials, such as polyimide (PI),4 polybenzimidazole (PBI),5 poly(ether block amide)6 etc, have been crosslinked by various approaches to prepare stable OSN membranes. The most common polymer for OSN application is polyimide (PI) due to it can be simply crosslinked by diamine via the reaction between amine groups and imide groups.4 Many reported crosslinked PI OSN membranes are integrally skinned asymmetric membrane prepared via phase inversion technique followed by diamine crosslinking, but these membranes suffer from limitation in terms of permeance for certain solvents. Thin film composite membrane consists of an ultrathin separating layer on porous crosslinked PI supports 3



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is another important kind of OSN membranes. The ultrathin separating layer most commonly fabricated by interfacial polymerization or dip-coating can be independently

designed

to

maximize

the

overall

membrane

performance.

1,6-hexanediamine (HDA) crosslinked PI ultrafiltration membranes have been widely used as porous supports to prepare composite OSN membranes.7-9

Dopamine (DA), a mussel adhesive protein inspired molecular, has draw intensive attention due to it can spontaneously oxidize and self-polymerize in weak alkaline environment and form a thin polydopamine (PDA) layer onto nearly all types of surface, regardless of the material surface.10-13 More importantly, due to the existence of remaining catechol groups, the PDA layer can take the role of a versatile reaction platform for secondary modification via Micheal addition or Schiff base reactions. It has been widely used as a universal and versatile tool in membrane preparation, although the extra DA polymerization mechanism and PDA molecular structure are still unknown so far.14 In most cases, PDA layer was used as a versatile intermediate layer for further modification to achieve desirable separation properties. Several trials have been made to explore the possibility of employment of PDA as the separating layer for aqueous nanofiltration (NF) membrane. Li et al. have fabricated a NF membrane by dipping polysulfone substrate in dopamine solution. The obtained membrane showed high flux while the rejection is unsatisfactory.15 Some other works have

further reinforced

the PDA separating layer by crosslinking with

polyethylenimine, which can make the layer denser and meanwhile render the 4


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membrane surface positive charges.16-18 However, due to the steric hindrance of high molecular polyethylenimine, the crosslinking efficiency is low, and some small molecular compounds were further used to crosslink polyethylenimine so as to make the layer dense and compact enough for good rejection. These make the fabrication process of these membranes tedious, time-consuming and generate amounts of chemical pollutant at different stages.

So far, the utilizations of PDA for OSN application are still rare. Mu et al. have prepared thin film composite OSN membranes by dispersing PDA nanoparticles in aqueous phase prior to the interfacial polymerization. It is proved that the introduction of PDA nanoparticles in polyamide separating layer can improve the membrane hydrophilicity and solvent resistance.19 In addition, there are some other reports focusing on construction of a specific thin film composite separating layer for OSN using dopamine as monomer in aqueous phase via interfacial polymerization.20,21 Strictly speaking, the separating layers are polyamide/polyester, which are formed via nucleophilic substitution reaction between amine/hydroxyl groups in dopamine and trimesoyl chloride, not a PDA based layer. Although the insolubility property of PDA in organic solvents potentially allows its application in OSN,22 the direct utilization of PDA as the separating layer for OSN membranes, as far as we know, has yet not been explored.

Herein, for the first time, we reveal the potential of PDA to be incorporated as a 5



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separating layer on crosslinked PI support for OSN and further optimized its performance via HDA induced crosslinking. In an improved fabrication route, the simultaneous crosslinking of both PDA coating and PI support can be completed in a single step, which was much more simple and time-saving, as shown in Figure 1. The resultant composite membrane exhibited desirable solvent permeance with high rejection for dyes in a wide range solvents including challenging polar aprotic and strongly swelling solvents. The simplicity of fabrication strategy, good separation performance and the high stability of this composite membrane predict the potentials in separation and purification in many industrial fields.

Figure 1. Illustration for the fabrication of mussel-inspired composited nanofiltration membrane for organic solvent nanofiltration.

EXPERIMENTAL Materials. P84 polyimide polymer was provided by Granulat SG STD. 1,6-hexanediamine (HDA), Tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (Tris), Methyl Orange (MO), Crystal Violet (CV), Orange G (OG), Acid Fuchsin (AF), Methyl Blue 6


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(MB), Rose Bengal (RB) and Solvent Blue II (SB II) were obtained from Aladdin Industrial Co.,

Ltd. Dopamine

hydrochloride

(DA)

was purchased from

Sigma-Aldrich (USA). All organic solvents were supplied by Xilong Chemical Industrial Co., Ltd. All used water was deionized.

Preparation of PI Supports. PI supports were produced via a non-solvent induced phase separation process. A dope solution was formed by dissolving 16 wt% of P84 polymer in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) and stirred until complete dissolution. The solution was left overnight to disengage air bubbles and then cast on a glass plate using a casting knife set at a thickness of 200 µm. After casting, the membrane was immersed in a water coagulation bath and the solidification of membrane occurred. After 30 min, the membrane was transferred to a fresh water bath and stored for further use.

Preparation of Composited Membranes. Two fabrication methodologies were carried out, as shown in Figure 2. Fabrication methodology A was devised in a routine procedure, in which a crosslinked PI support was prepared followed with the construction of active layer on it. This fabrication methodology allows ascertaining the utilization of pure PDA layer as a separating layer. Fabrication methodology B is an improved methodology with simplified fabrication process.

Fabrication methodology A. PI supports were immersed with IPA, and then 7



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transferred to a 20 g L-1 solution of HDA in IPA for 24 hours for crosslinking. The resultant membranes was washed with IPA and denoted as cPI. The cPI membranes were rinsed with DI water, then immersed in a fresh prepared 2 mg mL-1 dopamine Tris-HCl solution (pH 8.5) and shake at 30 oC for certain time. The modified membranes were washed with DI water and denoted as PDA/cPI. Furthermore, these membranes were rinsed with IPA and immersed in a 20 g L-1 solution of HDA in IPA for 24 hours for further crosslinking of PDA layers. The obtained membranes were washed with IPA and denoted as cPDA/cPI.

Fabrication methodology B. PI supports were immersed in a fresh prepared 2 mg mL-1 dopamine Tris-HCl solution (pH 8.5) and shake at 30 oC for certain time. The modified membranes were rinsed with DI water and denoted as PDA/PI. Furthermore, these membranes were rinsed with IPA and immersed in a 20 g L-1 solution of HDA in IPA for 24 hours for crosslinking of whole membrane. The obtained membranes were washed with IPA and denoted as c(PDA/PI).

Figure 2. Schematic of membrane fabrication methodology A and B.

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Membrane Characterization. The chemical structure of the membranes was characterized by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR, Perkin-Elmer, USA) and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS, AXIS UltraDLD, SHIMADZU, Japan). The morphologies of the membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Hitachi SU8000). Surface roughness of the membranes was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM, Nanoscope IIIA) in air atmosphere. The water contact angles of membranes were characterized by a contact angle measuring system (G10 Kruss, Germany). Deionized water and ethylene glycol were used to measure the surface energy (SE). The reported contact angle was calculated by averaging over more than five contact angle values at different sites. SE is the sum of disperse and polar parts, which were calculated by Eq. (1):

γ1 (1+ cosθ ) =

4γ sdγ ld 4γ spγ lp + γ sd + γ ld γ sp + γ lp

(1)

where γ refers to surface energy, the subscript l and s refer to liquid and solid, and the superscript d and p refer to dispersive and polar components, respectively. θ refers to contact angles between ordinary liquids (H2O or ethylene glycol) and the membranes.

Nanofiltration Experimental Procedure. The nanofiltration experiments were carried out at 5 bar and 25 oC with a self-made filtration apparatus (Figure S1). The active surface area of each membrane was 21.1 cm2, and at least three independently prepared membranes were tested. The membranes were compacted for 2 hours at 5 bar to reach a steady value, and then the permeance and rejection were measured. The 9



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feed containing 35 µM dyes in a variety of solvents was poured into the cell and stirred at 11.66 Hz (700 rpm) to minimize the possible concentration polarization. The solvent permeance was measured as given in Eq. (2): P=

V A × t × ∆P

(2)

where P is permeance (L m-2 h-1 bar-1), V (L) is the volume of the permeate, A is the membrane active surface (m2), t is the operation time (h) and ∆P is the applied pressure across the membrane (bar). The rejections of dyes were calculated from Eq. (3):  Cp R = 1 −  C f 

  × 100% 

(3)

where Cp and Cf were dye concentrations in permeate and feed, respectively. The concentrations of dyes in solvents were measured by a UV-vis Cintra20-GBC apparatus.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Possible Mechanisms of PDA Formation and Its Crosslinking by HDA. The most recognizable reaction pathway leading to PDA, as shown in Figure 3(A), is that DA is first oxidized to dopaminequinone under alkaline conditions, followed by cyclization to yield leukodopaminechrome.10,23 After that, leukodopaminechrome further suffers from oxidization and rearrangement to form 5,6-dihydroxyindole. The branching reaction between 5,6-dihydroxyindole structures leads to the formation of covalent binding among aryl rings. These covalent bindings, together with other non-covalent binding, such as π-π stacking, hydrogen bonding and charge transfer interactions, lead 10


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to the deposition of PDA on substrates.24

Moreover, in an alkaline solution, the catechol groups in PDA are readily to be oxidized to the corresponding quinone form. The quinone can spontaneously react with amines via Michael addition or Schiff base reaction to form covalent –C-NH or –C=N bond.10 This enables the crosslinking reaction of PDA coating by HDA, as shown in Figure 3(B).

Figure 3. (A) Possible mechanism of PDA formation and (B) crosslinking reaction of PDA by HDA.

Chemical Properties of Membranes. Figure 4(A) shows the ATR-FTIR spectra of membranes in fabrication methodology A. The PI support showed typical imide peaks at 1780, 1718 and 1352 cm-1. The above imide peaks significantly attenuated, 11



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meanwhile the amide peaks at 1648 and 1534 cm-1 emerged in the spectra of cPI. In addition, a broad peak at 3270 cm-1 related to –NH- in amide, and two peaks at 2936 and 2862 cm-1 originated from –CH2- in HDA also proved the successful crosslinking of PI support.25-27 After dopamine coating, the peak at 3270 cm-1 became stronger in intensity, which can be ascribed to both catechol –OH and –NH from PDA layer.28,29 This peak slightly decreased after a further crosslinking of PDA layer, which might be due to the conversion of catechol –OH to quinone.30 In addition, membrane relative mass gain suggests the increased density of PDA layer after crosslinking (Figure S2).

Figure 4. ATR-FTIR spectra of membranes in fabrication methodologies A (A) and B (B).

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Figure 4(B) shows the ATR-FTIR spectra of membranes in fabrication methodology B. Compared with the pristine PI support, the PDA modified membrane PDA/PI exhibited enhanced adsorption ranging from 1660 to 1050 cm-1. Typically, two peaks at 1605 and 1509 cm-1, which were attributed to the –C=C- in aromatic ring and –NHstructure respectively, significantly increased.31 A broad peak at around 3300 cm-1 related to –NH- and –OH groups in PDA can be observed. These proved the successful coating of PDA on the PI surface. After crosslinking, the imide peaks attenuated and amide peaks appeared in the spectra of c(PDA/PI). The broad peak at 3300 cm-1 shifted to 3270 cm-1, and its intensity dramatically enhanced, which can be related to the –NH- in crosslinked PI and PDA structures. Most importantly, the spectra of c(PDA/PI) is consist with that of cPDA/cPI.

A more detailed study on the membrane chemistry was investigated by XPS analysis. The element contents of membrane surface are presented in Table 1, and deconvolution of the O1s spectrum were shown in Figure 5. In fabrication methodology A, cPI showed a decreased O content comparing to PI due to the introduction of HDA during crosslinking (Table 1). Both these membranes exhibited a signal O 1s peak which are attributed to –C=O in imide and amide groups, respectively. After dopamine coating, a significant increase in O content could be found in PDA/cPI due to that the support has been covered by PDA and the O content in PDA is richer than that in support. Meanwhile, a peak at 532.5 eV assigned to catechol C-OH was observed. With the crosslinking of HDA, the intensity of this peak 13



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decreased and it could be related to the oxidation of catechol to quinone, which was further subjected to the following Michael addition or Schiff base reaction, as shown in Figure 3(B). Meanwhile, the O content in cPDA/cPI decreased as a result of the substitution of O by N during Schiff base reaction.

Table 1. Elemental composition of membranes as determined by XPS. membrane

C (%)

N (%)

O (%)

PI

78.05

6.11

15.84

cPI

77.69

9.07

13.25

PDA/cPI

70

6.78

23.22

cPDA/cPI

73.55

8.55

17.91

PI

78.05

6.11

15.84

PDA/PI

69.79

5.27

24.94

cPDA/cPI

73.27

8.6

18.12

Figure 5. O1s spectra of membranes.

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In fabrication methodology B, the O content also increased after dopamine coating and decreased after a further crosslinking. For O 1s spectrum, the peak related to catechol C-OH peak appeared after dopamine coating and its intensity decreased after crosslinking, showing a similar trend to that in fabrication methodology A. The elemental composition and O 1s spectra of c(PDA/PI) is very close to that of cPDA/cPI. Considering their similar chemical properties, as indicated by ATR-FTIR and XPS results, as well as their identical performance separation, which will further discussed below, we focused the following characterizations on membranes in fabrication methodology B.

Morphologies of Membranes. Figure 6 shows the morphologies of the PI support, PDA/PI and c(PDA/PI) membranes. Top surface SEM images showed that the PI support had a relatively clear surface, while PDA/PI composite membrane displayed some nanoaggregates, indicating the formation of PDA on membrane surface. During the self-polymerization process of dopamine, PDA generated from covalent crosslinking and subsequent non-covalent aggregation would deposit onto the membrane surface to form nanoaggregates.32 Some aggregates with larger size could be due to the conjugation and accumulation of PDA nanoaggregates. After crosslinking of HDA, the heterogeneity of membrane top surface was decreased and only a few nanoaggregates can be observed, which could be due to the introduction of flexible

HDA chains.

Similar

observations

were

also

been

reported

in

polyethylenimine cross-linked PDA surface.17 Cross-sectional images revealed that 15



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there is no significant boundary between support and coating layers, indicating the good compatibility between PI and PDA. The blurry boundary between support and PDA layer has also been reported in other works,32-34 and the generally accepted reasons for this phenomenon are: (1) the small DA molecule penetrated into the nanopores of support and polymerized in the pores, obscuring the boundaries; (2) the PDA layer is too thin (usually less than 50 nm) to be detected.10

Figure 6. Top surface (top), cross-sectional (middle) and AFM (bottom) images of membranes.

AFM images showed that the top surface of PI support was relatively smooth with a roughness of 5.79. While it greatly increased to 14.9 after dopamine coating, and it could be ascribed to the deposition of PDA nanoaggregates on membrane surface. After crosslinking, a decreased down to 9.95 was observed. The changes of roughness 16


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were extremely consistent with changes observed from SEM images, which further confirm the deposition of PDA layer and the subsequent crosslinking.

Membrane Surface Properties. The static and time-dependent water contact angles of membranes were shown in Figure 7. The pristine PI support showed a highest water contact angle of 67o, and it declined only 3o in 120 s. In comparison, the water contact angle of PDA/PI decreased down to 52o, and it declined 14o in 120 s, demonstrating the improved hydrophilicity and wettability. These can be explained by the synergic effect of hydrophilic hydroxyl groups in PDA and the relatively higher membrane surface roughness. Moreover, after crosslinking by HDA, the hydrophilicity and wettability of membrane surface were decreased as the water contact angle was elevated to 60o and it declined 10o in 120 s. These could be related to the conversion of hydrophilic -OH groups to hydrophobic –C=N- groups after crosslinking, which is also concurred with FTIR and XPS results. In addition, the decreased membrane surface roughness could be also responsible for the decreased hydrophilicity of c(PDA/PI).

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Figure 7. Water contact angle of membranes versus drop age.

Membrane surface energy characterizations were further carried to elucidate the membrane surface property, and the results were shown in Table 2. Although the membranes showed close values in total surface energy, significant differences in dispersive and polar components can be observed. Comparing to the pristine PI support, the polar component of PDA/PI dramatically increased, while its dispersive component decreased, which can be rational considering the abundant –OH groups at PDA/PI surface. After crosslinking, due to the hydrophilic -OH groups have partly conversed to hydrophobic –C=N- groups, the polar component of c(PDA/PI) has decreased and its dispersive component slightly increased.

Table 2. Contact angles and surface energies of membranes. Contact Angle (o)a

Surface-energy components (mJ m-2)

Water

Ethylene Glycol

γLd

γLp

γL

PI

67

30

30.00

12.30

42.30

PDA/PI

53

23

17.16

29.77

46.93

c(PDA/PI)

60

31

19.68

22.52

42.20

Membrane

18


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a

The error in contact angle measurement is no more than 2o.

Membrane Performance. The effect of pure PDA layer on membrane separation performance was shown in Figure 8(A). It can be seen that the pristine cPI support showed an EtOH permeance of 142 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 and a RB rejection less than 10%, demonstrating its ultrafiltration nature. After PDA coating, the EtOH permeance decreased and RB rejection increased significantly. The EtOH permeance further decreased from 24.2 to 0.2 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 while the RB rejection improved from 14% to 74% with prolonging coating time from 1 h to 6 h. The decrease of EtOH permeance could be rationalized that a continuous PDA layer gradually formed on the support surface, which would enhance solvent permeation resistance. Meanwhile, the intrinsic crosslinked and stacked PDA structure could provide a sieve effect for dye separation in some degree and give rise to an increased RB rejection. However, due to the fact that the pure PDA layer was not dense enough, the RB rejection was only 74% even when EtOH permeance was compromised to 0.2 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, showing an unsatisfactory performance.

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Figure 8. (A) Separation performances of PDA/cPI in terms of coating time, (B) separation performances of cPDA/cPI in terms of coating time, (C) comparison of separation performance between cPDA/cPI and c(PDA/PI) (coating time of 4 h), (D) separation performances of c(PDA/PI) towards various dyes in EtOH, and (E) separation performances of c(PDA/PI) in various solvents, and (F) long-term separation performance of c(PDA/PI) in EtOH and DMF.

The effect of crosslinking of PDA layer on membrane performance was further investigated. As shown in Figure 8(B), after a further crosslinking of PDA layer, the RB rejection considerably elevated at any tested coating time. This could be due to that the loose PDA layer became relatively denser for RB rejection after the introduction of flexible HDA chain via covalent bonds. The EtOH permeance was corresponding decreased because of the increased resistance from the active layer. At an optimized coating time of 4 h, the cPDA/cPI membrane exhibited an EtOH permeance of 0.86 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 and a RB rejection of 98%. Membrane performances in DMF and toluene also exhibited increased dye rejection of cPDA/cPI 20


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than PDA/cPI, further indicating the improvement of PDA crosslinking on separation performance (Figure S3).

For the comparison of separation performance between cPDA/cPI and c(PDA/PI), the dopamine coating times in both fabrication methodologies was fixed at 4 h. As shown in Figure 8(C), c(PDA/PI) showed a EtOH permeance of 0.91 L m-2 h-1 bar-1 and RB rejection of 99%, which is nearly equivalent separation performance to cPDA/cPI. But narrower variations in both EtOH permeance and RB rejection were observed for c(PDA/PI). These narrower variations may be expected, as the fabrication methodology B was more simplified and brought in less system errors. In addition, the fabrication methodology B avoids a repeating crosslinking operation, thus time and effort are saved during synthesis process. Moreover, it requires less reagent and creates less waste, which are of great interest from an environmental point of view.

The separation performances of c(PDA/PI) towards various dyes in EtOH was investigated and shown in Figure 8(D). The chemical structure, molar weights and charges of these dyes were summarized in Figure S4. It can be seen that the EtOH permeance changed little for different dyes, indicating the type of dyes has no significant influence on solvent permeance. In addition, the dye rejections depend mainly upon their molecular weights. Dyes with relatively higher molecular weight, such as RB and MB, were nearly completely rejected. Although the rejections to MO, CV and OG were not so satisfactory, they can be further improved by prolonging the 21



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PDA coating time to 5 h (Figure S5). These results indicate the obvious sieving effect in this system.

The separation performances of c(PDA/PI) in various solvents were shown in Figure 8(E). Due to the fact that RB is insoluble in toluene, an oil-soluble dye SB 35 was used to replace RB in a toluene solution. It can be seen that the membrane showed good separation performances in a wide range of solvent including alcohols, polar aprotic solvent and non-polar solvents, which can be ascribe to the crosslinked structures in both selective layer and support. No significant trend has been observed for filtrations in different solvents. The solvent/solute transport mechanism in OSN is much more complex and less discovered than aqueous nanofiltration. Many factors, such as specific properties of used solvents (molar volume, viscosity, surface tension, etc.) and solutes (structure, charge, etc.), as well as membrane-solvent-solute interactions, make the experimental observations hardly comparable.35,36 However, for the alcohol homologous series, some regulations can be observed. The permeance of alcohol solvents are in the order of MeOH > EtOH > IPA. The highest MeOH permeance could be due to its smallest molar volume and viscosity, while the lowest IPA permeance could be related to its highest molar volume and viscosity. Besides that, the RB rejection displayed an opposite trend with permeance, which could be due to that the different solute-solvent interactions lead to different RB conformation in these solvents.37 In addition, the highest MeOH permeance could lead to a strong dragging effect, which was responsible for the lowest RB rejection.38 22


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A weight lose less than 1% was observed for c(PDA/PI) after a immersion test in DMF for two weeks. The long-term membrane separation performance was specially tested in around 48 h using solutions of RB in EtOH and DMF as feeds. It can be seen from Figure 8(F) that both solvent permeance and RB rejection did not changed after an initial stage of membrane compaction, further demonstrating the stability of composited membrane.

Table 3 listed the separation performance of c(PDA/PI) and some reported OSN membranes. Compared with (catechol/PEI)/PAN, c(PDA/PI) shows higher solvent permeance with equivalent or higher dye rejections. Although the EtOH and DMF permeance of c(PDA/PI) are lower than the two DA based polyamide membrane, it shows much higher dye rejections.

Table 3. Comparison of some reported OSN membranes to c(PDA/PI) in this study.a Membrane material

Stability in polar

Solvent

Solute

Rejection

(L m h bar )

(MW)

(%)

IPA

0.26

RB (1017)

99

EtOH

0.6

RB (1017)

84

-2

aprotic solvent (Catechol/PEI)/PAN

dissolve

Permeance -1

-1

Ref.

[30]

(DA/TMC)/PES

dissolve

EtOH

3.2

MB (800)

81

[16]

(DA/TMC)/cPAN

stable

DMF

3.1

RB (1017)

93

[17]

c(PDA/PI)

stable

IPA

0.3

RB (1017)

99

This work

EtOH

0.91

MB (800)

99

DMF

0.63

RB (1017)

99

a

PEI, PAN, PES are abbreviations of polyethylenimine, polyacrylonitrile and 23



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polyethersulfone.

CONCLUSION In this study, composite OSN membranes were prepared via mussel-inspired PDA coating at cPI supports. The pure PDA coating layer can act as a separating layer for OSN, while crosslinking of PDA by HDA could lead to a denser compact layer in the composite membrane, remarkably increasing dye rejection. In an improved fabrication methodology, the crosslinking of both PDA separating layer and PI support can be achieved in a single step, which significantly simplified the membrane fabrication route. Moreover, the resultant composite membrane exhibits good separation performance toward dyes in a wide range of organic solvents, including challenging polar aprotic and strongly swelling solvents. Furthermore, the composite membrane shows good structural stability in a long-term performance testing.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT Supporting Information. The Supporting Information is available free of charge. Schematic of NF dead-end stirred-cell filtration system, relative mass gain of membranes, membrane performances of PDA/cPI and cPDA/cPI in DMF and toluene, characteristics of the dyes used for membrane performance testing, separation performances towards CV, OG and MO in EtOH of c(PDA/PI) prepared at a PDA coating time of 5 h.

24


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Corresponding Author *L. Shao. Tel: [email protected]

+86-451-86413711.

Fax:

+86-451-86418270.

Email:

Author Contributions The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Notes The authors declare no competing financial interest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (21676063, U1462103), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (Harbin Institute Technology) (No. 2017DX07), and HIT Environment and Ecology Innovation Special Funds (HSCJ201619).

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Realizing Mussel-inspired Polydopamine Selective Layer with Strong Solvent Resistance in Nanofiltration towards Sustainable Reclamation

Yanchao Xu, Fangjie You, Hongguang Sun, Lu Shao*

(8.40 cm ×3.36 cm) Polydopamine based layers were demonstrated to separate dyes from organic solvents for sustainable molecular separations.

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Realizing Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine Selective ... - ACS Publications

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