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He, T. (2015). A sacrificial-layer approach to fabricate polysulfone support for forward osmosis thin-film composite membranes with reduced internal concentration polarisation. Journal of Membrane Science, 481 106-114.A sacrificial-layer approach to fabricate polysulfone support for forward osmosis thin-film composite membranes with reduced internal concentration polarisation AbstractThis study demonstrates a sacrificial-layer approach by co-casting, which is the simultaneous casting of two layers, to prepare a polysulfone support (denoted as PSfco) layer with open bottom surface morphology for fabricating thin-film composite forward osmosis (FO) membranes. In the co-casting process, polyetherimide (PEI), used as the sacrificial layer, was co-cast beneath the PSf layer. After the PEI layer was peeled off, PSfco was yielded with an open-bottom structure. Results showed that under the same operating condition, the FO membrane prepared by co-casting (denoted as PSfco-TFC) demonstrated a 10% higher water flux using 0.5 M NaCl draw solution and 30% higher water flux using 4 M NaCl draw solution in the AL-FS mode in comparison to membranes prepared in a single layer casting technique (denoted as PSfs-TFC). The PSfco-TFC exhibits a lower average structural parameter (S, 167 μm) than that of the PSfs-TFC (241 μm), while the water and salt permeability coefficients of both membranes are similar. Results reported here demonstrate that the co-casting technique can be used to fabricate FO membranes with significantly improved performance compared to the conventional approach. Results showed that under the same operating condition, the FO membrane prepared by cocasting (denoted as PSf co -TFC) demonstrated a 10% higher water flux using 0.5 M NaCl draw solution and 30% higher water flux using 4 M NaCl draw solution in the AL-FS mode in comparison to membranes prepared in a single layer casting technique (denoted as PSf s -TFC).The PSf co -TFC exhibits a lower average structural parameter (S, 167 microns) than that of the PSf s -TFC (241 microns), while the water and salt permeability coefficients of both membranes are similar. Results reported here demonstrate that the co-casting technique can be used to fabricate FO membranes with significantly improved performance compared to the conventional approach.

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