Effect Of Vacuum UV Irradiation And PVA Grafting On Thin-Film RO Membranes

The surface modifications of thin-film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis membranes were investigated in this study. The development led to simplified technology to produce desalinated water. Another research aim was a comparison of change membrane performances by the presence of zinc nanostructures during the deposition of a PVA/GA chemical layer and by surface activation by vacuum UV (VUV) irradiation. Zn -nanostructures and vacuum irradiation strongly influenced salt rejection, chlorine resistance, and antifouling behavior. VUV-irradiation decreased water contact angle on commercial TFC membranes. VUV treatment with a web speed of 1 m/min extended water contact angle on membranes to reach 8.7 degrees. Those results proved the activation effect of VUV-irradiation on the reverse osmosis membrane and increased hydrophilicity. A decrease in VUV dosage led to an increase in web speed and lowered radiation effect. Zn-nanostructures in the PVA coating layer enhanced the fouling resistance and decreased the contact angle by about 10 degrees, obtaining a flux recovery ratio of about 89%. Vacuum UV irradiation showed a significant impact on RO membrane surface modification. Especially for VUV treatment with a web speed of 10 m/min, it showed dense layer deposition, which increased salt rejection to reach 87% but decreased the membrane productivity..