Abstract A novel aqueous solution additive, 1-methylimidazole (1-MI), was applied to prepare aromatic polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes with excellent performance by interfacial polymerization of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylenediamine. The RO membrane structure and performance were characterized in detail. The results indicated that the addition of 1-MI was beneficial to forming the membrane with a dense and thin PA layer. This is because 1-MI could react with TMC, which is in favor of the formation of back surface structure with more pores. The product generated by 1-MI and TMC was hydrolyzed easily, and then endowed the membrane with more carboxylic acid groups. The membrane desalination performance for feeds with different NaCl concentration was evaluated. The membrane prepared with 1-MI possessed a higher flux and rejection because of the thinner and denser PA layer and more carboxylic acid groups. Considering that the membranes inevitably face chemical cleaning with acid or alkaline solutions in the real processes, the RO membranes were exposed to acidic-alkaline solution, and the results showed that the membrane prepared with 1-MI had good pH stability. This study offers a new route for preparing an excellent-performance RO membrane via using 1-MI as an additive.

中文翻译：

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1-甲基咪唑作为一种新型反渗透膜添加剂，具有高通量拒绝组合和良好的稳定性

摘要 采用新型水溶液添加剂1-甲基咪唑(1-MI)，通过均苯三甲酰氯(TMC)与间苯二胺界面聚合制备性能优异的芳族聚酰胺(PA)反渗透(RO)膜。对 RO 膜结构和性能进行了详细表征。结果表明，1-MI的加入有利于形成具有致密和薄PA层的膜。这是因为 1-MI 可以与 TMC 反应，这有利于形成具有更多孔的背面结构。1-MI和TMC生成的产物容易水解，然后赋予膜更多的羧酸基团。评价了不同NaCl浓度进料的膜脱盐性能。用 1-MI 制备的膜具有更高的通量和截留率，因为 PA 层更薄更密，羧酸基团更多。考虑到膜在实际过程中不可避免地会面临酸碱溶液的化学清洗，RO膜暴露在酸碱溶液中，结果表明用1-MI制备的膜具有良好的pH稳定性。该研究为通过使用 1-MI 作为添加剂制备性能优异的 RO 膜提供了新途径。