Tailored ultra-low pressure nanofiltration membranes for advanced drinking water treatment

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes featuring high water permeance , excellent antifouling properties, and selective organic matter/minerals separation for drinking water are highly desirable in the environmental water treatment process. In this work, an ultra-permeable NF membrane was tailored via a low temperature-assisted interfacial polymerization (LTIP) method. The surface morphologies , structural compositions, and separation performances of the NF membranes were further regulated by changing the addition of the aqueous monomer . The optimized NF membrane (NFM-0.2) showed ultrahigh water permeance of 31.8 L m −2  h −1  bar −1 and 95.1 % Na 2 SO 4 rejection while maintaining superior antifouling behaviors. During the filtration of natural surface water, NFM-0.2 presented 75.5 % higher removals of DOC , UV 254 , and bisphenol A. The application of NFM-0.2 for filtrating ground water indicated that NFM-0.2 could remove 50.0 % and 62.9 % of organic matter and total hardness, respectively. The permeate water not only had no potential to form scaling after boiling but also preserved mineral ions, which was helpful for providing high-quality drinking water. Combined with the feasibility and practicability of the LTIP method, the facile strategy provides a facile way for tailoring ultralow pressure NF membranes featuring both highly selective separation of organic matter/minerals and superior antifouling abilities for practical water treatment.