Abstract
In this work, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) derived from sawdust were successfully incorporated into a thin film composite membrane made from polyamide. The characteristics of unmodified and modified membranes were investigated using FT-IR, XRD, TGA, SEM, EDX, AFM andcontact angle measurement. The membranes’ performances were evaluated using a dead-end testcell with sodium chloride (1500 ppm) and calcium chloride (2500 ppm) solutions. FT-IR andXRD analyses revealed that polymerization took place during the incorporation of the cellulosenanocrystals. From EDX analysis, it was found that incorporation of CNC into the membraneresulted in an increase in the oxygen content both at the atomic and mass levels. SEM and AFMimages revealed dense and tight structures for both modified and unmodified membranes. The modified membrane was more hydrophilic and rougher than the unmodified membrane. The water fluxwas significantly increased (more than 23%) while maintaining high rejection rate values for sodiumchloride (98.3 ± 0.8%) and calcium chloride (97.1 ± 0.5%). Furthermore, there was also anincrease in the thermal stability of the membrane. The results, therefore, have shown a great prospect in the development of thin-film nanocomposite membranes using sawdust-derived cellulosenanocrystals incorporated in polyamide.