Design of a Novel Nanofibre FO Membrane

This chapter introduces a novel forward osmosis (FO) membrane, nanofiber FO membrane, which is made of an electrospun nanofiber support layer and a thin active layer. Conventional FO membranes consist of a dense active layer and an asymmetric porous support layer that supports phase-inversion processes. One challenge this asymmetric porous support layer inevitably faces is the internal concentration polarization phenomenon. A customer-designed electrospinning setup was used to fabricate the nanofiber support layer on a nonwoven fabric. The pore structures of FO membranes were observed by a Zeiss Evo 50 Scanning Electron Microscopy and a Joel JSM 7600F thermal FESEM. The chapter paves the way for the development of next-generation FO membranes with high water production rate. The active layers could be modified with mesoporous materials to present ion-selective and high flux performance. Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784414071.ch0