EFFECT OF ISO- AND TERE-PHTHALOYL CONTENT ON THE PORE SIZE AND THE PORE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF AROMATIC POLYAMIDE RO MEMBRANES

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Abstract
Poly-m-phenylene-iso(x)-co-tere(100-xc)-phthalamide copolymers with different x values were synthesized and viscoelastic properties of the polymer solution were studied in the presence of lithium chloride nonsolvent additive in order to determine the size of the polymer aggregate in the solution. Reverse osmosis membranes were also prepared using the polymers synthesized above. The membrane performance was then tested for the separation of sodium chloride solute and reference organic solutes, in order to obtain the average pore size and the pore size distribution of the membrane. The data for the pore size were further used to calculate the length of the polymer segment in the noncrystalline region. An interesting correlation was found between the above length and the isophythaloyl content, x, of the copolymer.