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The objective of this study was to develop new nanofiltration (NF) membranes capable of providinghigher water permeability and higher rejection for a wide range of contaminantscompared to commercial NF membranes. Rigid star amphiphiles (RSAs), synthesized aspart of this study having various range of hydrophobicity, were used as active layermaterial. Characterization study by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Rutherfordbackscattering spectrometry (RBS) showed that the RSA membranes have uniform, ultra-thin(~16.5 nm) active layers. Performance characterization showed that RSA membraneshad water permeability 1.3-3.1 times higher than that of commercial NF membranes(ESNA and TFC-S) while providing comparable rejection of the organic contaminantsurrogate Rhodamine WT(R-WT). However, the rejection of arsenious acid (Hsub3/subAsOsub3/sub) bymost RSA membranes was found to be lower than that by the commercial membranes.The RSA with highest hydrophilicity provided the highest rejection of R-WT. In contrast,optimum As(III) rejection, comparable to that of commercial NF membranes wasobtained for RSAs with intermediate hydrophilicity. Polymerization of RSA is now understudy to improve RSA membrane performance. Includes 2 references, table, figure.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 03/01/2007 Number of Pages: 5File Size: 1 file , 320 KB