title: Hydrogel-polyurethane interpenetrating network material as an advanced draw agent for forward osmosis process.
abstract: Water desalination and purification are critical to address the global issue of the shortage of clean water. Forward osmosis (FO) desalination is an emerging low-cost technology for clean water production from saline water. The lack of a suitable draw agent is one of hurdle for the commercialization of FO desalination technology. Recently, the thermoresponsive hydrogel has been demonstrated to be a potential draw agent for the FO process. However, the commonly used hydrogel powder shows a much lower flux than other kind of draw agent such as inorganic salts. In this work, a hydrogel-polyurethane interpenetrating network (HPIPN) with monolith form was prepared by controlling the radical polymerization of the monomers (N-isopropylacrylamide and sodium acrylate) in the macropores (∼400 μm) of commercial polyurethane foam (PUF). These HPIPN composites show a flux as high as 17.9 LMH, which is nearly 8 times than that of hydrogel powders (2.2 LMH). The high flux is attributed to the 3-D continuous hydrogel-polyurethane interpenetrating network, which can effectively enhance the water transport inside the monolith.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Ze-Xian
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Low
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Ranwen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: George P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. Electronic address: huanting.wang@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Huanting
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009995:Osmosis; D011140:Polyurethanes; D014867:Water; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011140:Polyurethanes; D014867:Water; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate
keywords: Desalination; Draw agent; Forward osmosis; Hydrogel; Water transport