Nanofiber Supported Thin Film Composite Membranes for Engineered Osmosis

Electrospun nanofibers are an emerging material in membrane separations today.  Their high porosity combined with narrow pore size make them excellent candidates as supports for asymmetric composite membranes.  In this work, electrospun nanofibers are used as supports for a novel type of thin film composite (TFC) membrane for Engineered Osmosis (EO) applications.  These membranes exhibit excellent permselectivity while retaining the properties of membranes most suited for osmotic separations.  These characteristics include having a thin, highly porous, and reasonably strong support layer.  This presentation outlines a number of new nanofiber based TFC membranes developed at the University of Connecticut for use in osmotic separations.  Their performance (flux, selectivity) greatly exceeds that of other membranes proposed in the academic literature as well as those membranes produced commercially.    These new membranes may help enable EO to viably function in processes that involve water desalination, power production, and dewatering.