Thin-film composite membranes with mineralized nanofiber supports for highly efficient nanofiltration

Nanofiltration has exhibited broad application prospects in the field of precise separation attributed to its unique sieving performance for ions and small molecules, high permeation flux low energy consumption. However, it remains a great challenge current nanofiltration membranes (NFMs) improve permeability while maintaining rejection divalent (or multivalent) ions. In this work, we design fabricate novel thin-film composite (TFC) membrane, which an electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane is adopted as support after modified by zirconia mineral layer via surface biomimetic mineralization method, then ultrathin selective polyamide (PA) with wrinkled structure constructed on interfacial polymerization. The hydrophilic mineralized can help decrease thickness PA significantly. Meanwhile, abundant particles acting templates will generate layer, providing improved effective filtration area. Therefore, resultant NFMs exhibit water 38.2 L m?2 h?1 (under 4 bar) accompanied excellent rate anions (e.g. 97.6% SO42?) cations 92.4% Mg2+). This study could pave avenue develop highly efficient comprehensive applications.