SBIR Phase I: Chemically Resistant Membranes for Water Purification

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将为净化使用现有商业膜无法经济处理的沃茨提供新的机会。 增加市场增长，包括回收和再利用目前计划处理或长期环境风险储存的受污染水，将增加工业和农业用水的可用性，并减少这些用户对环境的影响。 更多的可用水，特别是在高需求地区，将导致更高的产量和更低的成本，为工业和农业为基础的消费者，从而导致就业增长。这个SBIR第一阶段项目提出验证一种新的薄膜复合膜制造方法，使用新的材料策略，生产改变游戏规则的抗污染和耐氯反渗透膜。 目前市场上占主导地位的聚酰胺薄膜复合（TFC）膜固有地易受污染，并被用于减轻生物污染的氯消毒剂降解，这是膜操作的最大挑战。 建立的TFC生产技术提供了非常薄的活性层的顺序为100？纳米级，但限于聚酰胺。 拟议的技术将使用替代聚合物生产TFCs。 耐氯和固有的非污垢的聚合物是有针对性的使用，但未满足的挑战一直是有机会制造它们的膜厚度下降到100？的纳米厚度制度，以挑战目前的商业膜的通量性能。 将这种新的制造技术和新的聚合物相结合是开发创新膜所需的技术突破。 该项目将合成目标聚合物组合物，在新工艺中开发配方和制造参数，并生产用于测试的TFC样品。 TFC样品将在各种模拟测试沃茨中进行污垢和耐氯性、水通量和盐排斥的比较测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will provide new opportunities for purifying waters that cannot be economically treated using existing commercial membranes. Increased market growth to include recycle and re-use of contaminated water that is currently slated for disposal or long term environmentally risky storage will increase water availability for industry and agriculture and reduce environmental impact from these same users. More available water, especially in higher demand locations, will lead to higher production and lower costs for industrial and agriculture based consumers, leading to job growth.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to validate a new method of thin film composite membrane fabrication using new materials strategies to produce game changing anti-fouling and chlorine resistant reverse osmosis membranes. Current market dominating polyamide thin film composite (TFC) membranes are inherently susceptible to fouling and degraded by chlorine disinfectants used to mitigate bio-fouling, which is the greatest challenge to membrane operation. The established TFC production technique provides very thin active layers on the order of 100?s of nanometers but is limited to polyamides. The proposed technology will produce TFCs with alternative polymers. Polymers that are chlorine resistant and inherently non-fouling are targeted for use but the unmet challenge has been the opportunity to manufacture them with membrane thicknesses down to the 100?s of nm thickness regime necessary to challenge the flux properties of current commercial membranes. Combining this new fabrication technology and new polymers is the technological breakthrough needed to develop innovative membranes. The project will synthesize a target polymer composition, develop the formulation and fabrication parameters within the new process and produce TFC samples for testing. TFC samples will undergo comparative testing of fouling and chlorine resistance, water flux and salt rejection in a variety of simulated test waters.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.