Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) has drawn attention as a nanofiller for thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes to improve desalination performance due to their high porosity and high surface area. Although a few studies on ZIF-8 embedded TFNs have been reported, size effects of ZIF-8 particles on TFNs have not yet been studied. In this work, TFNs incorporated with different sizes of ZIF-8 (small, middle, large) were prepared and the ZIF-8 particles were characterized using electron microscopy and XRD. All of TFNs incorporated with ZIF-8 showed a higher water permeance without losing NaCl rejection compared to the bare RO membranes. Remarkably, TFNs with middle size of ZIF-8 represented the highest water permeance, which is attributed to the highest volume fraction of ZIF-8 filler in polyamide matrix.

• 오지연(한양대학교 에너지공학과, Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University) | Jee Yeon Oh
• 이태훈(한양대학교 에너지공학과, Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University) | Tae Hoon Lee
• 박호범(한양대학교 에너지공학과, Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University) | Ho Bum Park