Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Film Supported Nanofiltration Membrane with a Nearly 10 nm Thick Polyamide Selective Layer for High‐Flux and High‐Rejection Desalination

Abstract

Fabricating nanofiltration (NF) membranes with high permeating flux and simultaneous high rejection rate for desalination is rather significant and highly desired. A new avenue is reported in this work to design NF membrane by using polydopamine wrapped single‐walled carbon nanotube (PD/SWCNTs) ultrathin film as support layer instead of the use of traditional polymer‐based underlying layers. Thanks to the high porosity, smooth surface, and more importantly optimal hydrophilic surface of PD/SWCNTs film, a defect‐free polyamide selective layer for NF membrane with thickness of as thin as 12 nm is achieved. The obtained NF membrane exhibits an extremely high performance with a permeating flux of 32 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and a rejection rate of 95.9% to divalent ions. This value is two to five times higher than the traditional NF membranes with similar rejection rate.