Luo, Yun; Harder, Edward; Faibish, Ron S.; Roux, Benoit
Computer simulations of water flux and salt permeability of the reverse osmosis FT-30 aromatic polyamide membrane
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, 384:1-9, NOV 15 2011

The relative permeability of salt to water across an atomistic model of the FT-30 reverse osmosis (RO) membrane is studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The membrane model is built using a heuristic approach and gives a membrane density, water solubility and flux that are in good accord with the experimental values. The salt permeability is calculated from inhomogeneous solubility-diffusion theory using ion pathways from non-equilibrium targeted MD simulations, yielding an estimated salt rejection of 99.9% that is similar to the experimental value. The encouraging agreement with experimental data of FT-30 membrane suggests that MD simulations based on atomic models offer a useful way to support the experimental exploration of RD membrane development. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI:10.1016/j.memsci.2011.08.057

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