Enhancing Silica Scaling Resistance and Perm-Selectivity of Reverse Osmosis Membranes via Increased Charge Density and Suppressed Coordination Capacity

Silica scaling poses a substantial challenge in the advanced treatment of industrial wastewater by reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, while the existing methods modifying RO membranes to enhance antisilica scaling performance often compromise water permeance. Herein, we fabricated a sulfonated RO membrane (SLRO) using sodium lignosulfonate as a comonomer, achieving an enhanced charge density and reduced coordination capacity. SLRO exhibited superior antisilica scaling performance, reducing scaling rates by ∼145, ∼166, and ∼157% under acidic, neutral, and alkaline conditions compared to the control. Reduced density gradient analysis confirmed that sulfonic acid groups (−SO3H) on the SLRO surface increased the repulsion of silicic acid. Moreover, the SLRO demonstrated reductions of ∼112, ∼137, and ∼133% in cation-mediated silica scaling rates under the same conditions, attributed to the weaker coordination between −SO3H and cations, which diminished the cation-bridging effect. Furthermore, SLRO membranes exhibited high pure water permeance (3.3 L m–2 h–1 bar–1) and NaCl rejection (99.2%), with a water/NaCl selectivity (7.8 bar–1) three times greater than that of the control (2.6 bar–1), primarily attributed to increased surface roughness and reduced apparent thickness of the PA layer. Our work provides a robust strategy for fabricating silica scaling-resistant RO membranes with improved perm-selectivity.