Collaborative Research: Electrospray Additive Manufacturing of Thin Low Resistance Polyamide-Based Ion Exchange Membranes for Water Treatment

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This grant supports research to develop new knowledge about an electrospray additive manufacturing process to promote the progress of science and to advance national prosperity and well-being by facilitating the manufacture of materials to address water purification challenges and clean water shortages. Electrospray additive manufacturing is a process where organic monomers are deposited onto a surface to form a thin polymer film or membrane. This process carefully controls the way by which these molecules are placed on the surface and can be quickly adapted to manufacture a range of different membrane materials. The electrospray process, in this sense, has significant advantages over conventional film coating or casting processes. An example of one benefit of this approach would be that manufacturers could quickly adapt the process to make tailored water treatment membranes in response to emerging contaminants or pollutants in water. Results from this research benefit the U.S. economy and society by enabling the manufacture of very efficient membranes that provide better access to clean water. This research involves several disciplines including advanced manufacturing, materials science, chemical engineering, and electrochemistry. The use of a multi-disciplinary approach broadens participation of underrepresented groups in research and enhances engineering education and training for the future engineering workforce.The electrospray additive manufacturing process overcomes fundamental limitations, inherent to conventional manufacturing, that prevent reliable and controlled preparation of very thin polyamide ion exchange membranes with tunable properties. This research addresses knowledge gaps related to the use of electrospray additive manufacturing to enable incorporation of a range of co-monomers into the final membrane. This range of compositions allow the manufacture of materials not previously accessible via conventional manufacturing such as doctor-blade or slot-die casting. The research team prepares and characterizes the membranes to determine if electrospray additive manufacturing can be used to overcome mass transfer, solubility, and reaction kinetics limitations associated with conventional interfacial polymerization manufacturing. Additionally, the team uses the new process to incorporate fixed ionic groups into polyamide membranes to precisely engineer their properties via control of fixed ionic group concentration and cross-link density. Furthermore, the research team demonstrates that the electrospray additive manufacturing process can be used to manufacture membranes on a range of different substrates and that a resistances-in-series model can be used to inform the selection of support substrates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.