ABSTRACT

Forward osmosis is an emerging membrane technology in water desalination. In this study, desalination of saline water via forward osmosis was investigated using a new magnetic osmotic agent. For this purpose, Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles covalently functionalized with tri-sodium citrate was synthesized and characterized. The structural examinations revealed that the sodium citrate had been immobilized onto the magnetic nanoparticles. The highest water flux was obtained 17.1 L M^-2 h (LMH) per 80 g L^-1 osmotic agent solution against deionized water, while the ratio of salt flux to water flux was very low (0.088 g L ^-1). The osmotic solution was evaluated for saline water desalination using different concentrations of sodium chloride (NaCl) as feed solutions. The average water fluxes of 6.2, 4.5, and 2.7 LMH was obtained for 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 M salt solutions, respectively. The magnetic osmotic agent was separated by a magnet and re-used for several times without considerable decrease in the water flux.

摘要

正渗透是水脱盐中一种新兴的膜技术。在这项研究中，研究了使用新型磁渗透剂通过正向渗透对盐水进行脱盐的方法。为此目的，合成并表征了用柠檬酸三钠共价官能化的Fe ₃ O ₄纳米颗粒。结构检查表明柠檬酸钠已被固定在磁性纳米颗粒上。每80 g L ^-1渗透剂溶液对去离子水的最高水通量为17.1 LM ^-2 h（LMH），而盐通量与水通量之比非常低（0.088 g L ^-1）。使用不同浓度的氯化钠（NaCl）作为进料溶液评估渗透溶液的盐水淡化。对于0.1、0.2和0.5 M的盐溶液，分别获得6.2、4.5和2.7 LMH的平均水通量。磁渗透剂被磁体分离，并重复使用了几次，而水通量却没有明显下降。