Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246

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Journal of Membrane Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/memsci

Novel dual-layer hollow fiber membranes applied for forward

osmosis process
Laurentia Setiawan a,b, Rong Wang a,b,n, Lei Shi b, Kang Li c, Anthony G. Fane a,b
a
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 639798 Singapore, Singapore
b
Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, Nanyang Technological University, 639798 Singapore, Singapore
c
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A novel dual-layer forward osmosis (FO) hollow fiber membrane has been designed and successfully
Received 9 March 2012 fabricated by using a triple orifice spinneret. The fiber consists of two layers made from polyamide-
Received in revised form imide (PAI) polymer for the outer layer and polyethersulfone (PES) polymer for the porous inner layer.
3 May 2012
Specifically, after obtaining asymmetric microporous PAI/PES dual-layer hollow fibers via non-solvent
Accepted 21 July 2012
induced phase inversion, polyethyleneimine (PEI) polyelectrolyte modification on the outer PAI layer
Available online 28 July 2012
was applied to produce a nanofiltration (NF)-like thin layer, while the PES porous inner layer remained
Keywords: intact as PES is inert to PEI. The membrane morphology, structure and surface property were carefully
Forward osmosis tailored by adjusting polymer dope composition and spinning conditions. These membranes were
Membrane fabrication
subsequently characterized by a series of standard protocols in terms of membrane structure,
Dual-layer hollow fiber membrane
permeability and salt rejection, and were utilized in FO process.
Positively-charged nanofiltration
Chemical cross-linking It was found that the resultant dual-layer NF hollow fiber membrane can achieve pure water
permeability of 15.9 l m  2 h  1 bar  1 and a high rejection to divalent cations up to 89%. In FO process,
the dual-layer hollow fiber exhibited a water flux of 27.5 l m  2 h  1 in the orientation of active layer
facing feed water by using 0.5 M MgCl2 as draw solution and de-ionized (DI) water as feed at room
temperature. The newly developed dual layer hollow fibers outperform all the single layer and dual-
layer NF hollow fibers reported in the literature for FO applications.
& 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction but it is expensive. The material cost can be reduced by co-extruding

As an important membrane fabrication technology, the develop-
ment of dual-layer hollow fiber membranes made by co-extrusion
method has attracted increasing attention in the past two decades
since it was invented by Yanagimoto [1]. Compared with conven-
tional single-layer hollow fiber membranes, the dual-layer hollow
fibers offer several advantages due to the flexibility of using two
different polymer solutions, which are extruded simultaneously to
develop two layers from a triple orifice spinneret [2]. Each material
can impart desirable characteristics to the membrane, and the
integration of the two layers makes it possible to avoid certain
weakness of individual materials. Yang et al. [3] employed a brittle
but high performance polymer of polybenzimidazole (PBI) as the
selective layer supported by PES which has excellent mechanical
properties. Matrimid has an impressive gas separation performance
n
Corresponding author at: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, 639798 Singapore, Singapore.
Tel.: þ65 6790 5327; fax: þ 65 6791 0676.
E-mail address: rwang@ntu.edu.sg (R. Wang).
this material with polysulfone which is much cheaper [4].
A series of studies have been reported on the use of polymeric
dual-layer hollow fiber membranes for specific applications, including
gas separation [4,5], pervaporation [6], membrane distillation [7,8],
protein separation [9], forward osmosis (FO) [3,10], and nanofiltration
(NF) [2,11]. However, it is very challenging to make high performance
dual-layer hollow fibers, as it involves a sophisticated spinning
process in which two different phase inversion pathways occur
simultaneously. The major problem in a dual-layer composite struc-
ture is the integrity and the adhesion of the two layers, and the
compositions of the two polymer dope solutions play a critical role.
Increasing the concentration of the outer layer polymer solution
improves the adhesion considerably due to the high viscosity of the
solution that decreases water (non-solvent) diffusion. Therefore, a
good interpenetration of outer and inner polymer dopes can be
achieved [2,12].
To date, most of dual-layer hollow fiber membranes were
made using a high polymer concentration as the outer layer for
gas separation, pervaporation, nanofiltration, and FO applications.
For example, Yang et al. developed dual-layer hollow fiber NF
membranes applied for FO process [3,10]. A polybenzimidazole

0376-7388/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2012.07.020
 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246
(PBI) dope solution with a PBI concentration of 22.6 wt% was
employed as the outer selective layer while polyethersulfone
(PES) was used to form the inner support layer. The membranes
showed a water flux of 33.8 l m  2 h  1 using 5 M MgCl2 as the
draw solution facing the outer active layer and de-ionized (DI)
water as the feed facing the inner support layer. Considering that
the draw solution concentration used was quite high, obviously,
the water flux needs to be further improved. In the FO process,
the low permeate flux is mainly due to internal concentration
polarization (ICP) [13,14]. The ICP can be mitigated by fabricating
membrane with a porous substrate [15–17].
Recently, single-layer hollow fiber membrane with a NF-like
selective layer was successfully fabricated by utilizing asymmetric
microporous hollow fibers made of Torlons polyamide-imide (PAI)
material as the porous substrate followed by polyelectrolyte post-
treatment using polyethyleneimine (PEI), which imparted positive
charges to the membrane due to amine groups in PEI and densified
the outer skin of the membrane [18]. However, despite the fact
that the membrane exhibited a high water flux and high salt
rejection in the FO process, the chemical cross-linking still resulted
in a denser substrate which adversely affected the water flux. To
overcome the drawback of cross-linking modification on entire PAI
membrane, a dual-layer hollow fiber with PAI polymer as the outer
layer, supported by an inner layer made of other material inert to
PEI polyelectrolyte, may be an option due to the selective cross-
linking of the PAI layer.
The main objective of present study is to develop composite PAI-
PES dual-layer hollow fiber membrane applied for FO process.
Microporous PAI-PES dual-layer hollow fibers were fabricated by
one-step co-extrusion, followed by PEI polyelectrolyte post-treat-
ment, resulting in a positively charged NF-like thin selective layer
supported by a porous PES inner layer. To the best of our knowledge,
the cross-linking modification on microporous dual-layer hollow
fiber membranes has not been explored previously as an alternative
strategy to fabricate NF membranes applied for FO application.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Torlons 4000T (copolymer of amide and imide) (PAI, Solvay
Advanced Polymers, Alpharetta GA) and GafoneTM polyethersulfone
(PES, Solvay Advanced Polymers, Gujarat) were used as selective
layer and support layer materials, respectively. N-methyl-2-pyrroli-
done (NMP, 499.5%, CAS#872-50-4, Merck Chemicals, Singapore)
was used as solvent. Lithium chloride (LiCl, anhydrous, CAS#7447-
41-8, Merck) and polyethylene glycol (PEG, MW 400, Merck) and
were used as additives/pore formers. Purified water by a Milli-Q
system (18 M O cm) was used as the internal coagulant and solvent
for the preparation of aqueous solutions. Dextrans with different
molecular weights (from 6000 to 500,000 Da, CAS#9004-54-0,
Sigma) were used to characterize the molecular weight cut-off
(MWCO) of hollow fiber membranes. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) ethy-
lenediamine end-capped (molecular weight (Mw) 600, Sigma
Aldrich) and PEI branched (Mw 50–100 kDa, Polysciences) were
used to perform chemical post-treatment of the microporous hollow
fibers. For filtration experiments, magnesium chloride (MgCl2,
hexahydrate), purchased from Merck, was employed. All the
reagents were used as received.
2.2. Preparation of polymer dope solutions and dope viscosity
measurement
PAI and PES were dried in a 50 1C vacuum oven for at least
1 day to remove the moisture prior to the preparation of polymer
239
Table 1
Composition of polymer solutions.
Code Compositiona Flow rate ratio
outer:inner
Outer dope Inner dope (wt/wt)
A PAI/NMP 14/86 PES/LiCl/NMP 16/6/78 01:02.6
B PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 PES/NMP 16/84 01:03.0
C PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 PES/PEG400/NMP 16/10/74 01:03.2
D PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 PES/PEG400/NMP 16/10/74 01:02.4
E PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 PES/LiCl/NMP 16/6/78 01:02.4
a
Composition is based on wt%.
dope solutions. The detailed of the polymer dope compositions
are shown in Table 1. A desired amount of particular polymer and
non-solvent additive was dissolved in NMP in a jacket flask
equipped with a mechanical stirrer at a controlled temperature
of 70 1C. Inorganic salt of LiCl and organic macromolecules of PEG
have been chosen as the non-solvent additive. Both LiCl and PEG
are highly soluble in water and NMP, and able to promote pore
formation in membrane fabrication [19,20]. Once a homogeneous
solution was formed, the solutions were cooled down to room
temperature, filtered by using a 15 mm stainless steel filter and
subsequently degassed under vacuum at ambient temperature
over night prior to spinning.
The viscosity of polymer dope solutions was measured by a
Physica MCR 101 rheometer (Anton Paar). The measurements
were performed using a 25 mm cone plate (CP25-1) in the range
of 0.01 to 100 s  1 shear rate at 25 1C. The viscosity of the dope
solutions was taken at the shear rate of 10 s  1. Measurements
were repeated four times.
2.3. Fabrication of ultrafiltration PAI-PES dual-layer hollow fiber
substrates
PAI-PES UF dual-layer hollow fibers were fabricated by a dry–jet
wet spinning technique. The inner polymer solution, connected to
a high pressure nitrogen gas cylinder, was extruded through the
spinneret at a specific flow rate using a Zenith gear pump, while
the outer polymer solution and the bore fluid were extruded using
two syringe pumps, respectively. The nascent fibers went through
an air gap before immersing into an external coagulation bath at a
controlled temperature, and then collected by a roller at a free fall
take-up speed. Different air gap distances ranging from 1 to 10 cm
and different ratio of inner dope flow rate to internal bore fluid
flow rate were applied to investigate the optimum spinning
conditions of desirable dual layer hollow fiber membranes. The
codes of resultant membranes are designated as composition (A–E,
see Table 1)—ratio of inner dope flow rate to bore fluid flow rate by
weight (1:1 or 2:3) – air gap (1, 5, or 10 cm) – external coagulant
bath temperature (25 1C as default or 40 1C). For instance, the
membrane substrate B-11-1 refers to the membrane made of
composition B with 1:1 (wt/wt) ratio of inner dope flow rate to
bore fluid flow rate and an air gap of 1 cm at 25 1C; the C-23-5-T40
means that the membrane was made of composition C with 2:3
(wt/wt) ratio of inner dope flow rate to bore fluid flow rate and an
air gap of 5 cm at 40 1C. Tap water and Milli-Q water were used as
external and internal coagulants, respectively, at ambient tem-
perature. The details of the spinning conditions used for experi-
ments are shown in Table 1 and Table 2. The resultant hollow fiber
membranes were stored in a water bath for approximately two day
at room temperature to ensure that the residual solvent has been
removed completely.
A post-treatment was performed in order to minimize the
membrane shrinkage during drying process for storage purpose.
240 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246

Table 2 represents the pressure difference between the feed side and the
Spinning parameters. permeation side of the membrane (bar).
Substrate code Composition Flow rate ratio Water bath Air gap,
inner dope:bore temp, (1C) (cm) 2.5.3. Molecular weight cut off (MWCO) and pore size distribution
fluid (wt/wt) MWCO and pore size distribution of dual layer hollow fiber
substrates were assessed by using a 2000 ppm dextran aqueous
A-23-1 A 2:3 25 1
solution containing a mixture of several different molecular
A-23-5 A 2:3 25 5
B-11-1 B 1:1 25 1 weights from 6000 to 500,000 Da. The dextran solution was
B-11-5 B 1:1 25 5 circulated through the shell side of the hollow fiber module and
B-11-10 B 1:1 25 10 the permeate was collected for analysis by gel permeation
B-23-1 B 2:3 25 1
chromatography (GPC) on a Polymer Laboratories-GPC 50 plus
B-23-5 B 2:3 25 5
B-23-10 B 2:3 25 10
system (double PL aquagel-OHMixed-M 8m columns). The details
C-23-1 C 2:3 25 1 of the pore size distribution calculation can be found elsewhere
C-23-5 C 2:3 25 5 [22]. The molecular weight of dextran that gave 90% rejection was
C-23-5-T40 C 2:3 40 5 recorded as the MWCO.
D-23-5-T40 D 2:3 40 5
E-23-1 E 2:3 25 1
E-23-5 E 2:3 25 5 2.5.4. Salt rejection measurement of modified dual
layer hollow fibers
The salt rejection of chemically modified PAI-PES dual layer
hollow fibers was conducted in a bench scale cross-flow filtration
The membranes were immersed in a glycerol/water mixture (1:1 unit. The hydraulic pressure of 1 bar was applied on the shell side
by volume) for 24 h. This process allowed the glycerol to stay of the hollow fiber membrane module. The salt rejection experi-
inside the membrane pores as pore supporter to alleviate the pore ment was carried out using a 500 ppm MgCl2 solution based on
collapse during membrane drying process. Removing the glycerol conductivity measurement (Ultrameter II, Myron L Company,
can be done by immersing the membranes in DI water for 24 h Carlsbad, CA) of permeate and feed solutions.
prior to use.
2.6. Performance in FO process
2.4. Chemical cross-linking by using PEI polyelectrolyte
The schematic diagram of a lab-scale cross-flow FO unit used
The chemical post-treatment was conducted by immersing the in this study can be found elsewhere [23]. The same modules used
hollow fiber substrate into a 500 ml of 1% (wt/wt) PEI aqueous for PWP and salt rejection measurements were used for FO
solution at the temperature of 70 1C for 75 min. Next, the mem- experiment. One variable-speed gear pump was used to supply
branes were rinsed using purified water and stored for further the draw solution and two variable speed peristaltic pumps were
characterization. Details procedure can be found elsewhere [18]. used to supply the feed and dosing solution, respectively. The
volumetric flow rates of the shell side and lumen side were 1250
2.5. Characterization and analysis and 500 ml min  1, respectively, to ensure a similar Reynolds
number (around 2600) of the liquid flowing both in the module
2.5.1. Membrane morphology observation and mechanical property shell and fiber lumen. FO experiments were performed in two
measurement configurations: (1) draw solution flowed in shell side or active
The dimension of dual-layer hollow fiber membranes was layer facing draw solution (AL-DS), or known as PRO mode, and
measured by a Keyence VHX 500F Digital Microscope. Four (2) draw solution flowed in lumen side or active layer facing feed
different fibers were taken and a mean value was calculated for water (AL-FW), or known as FO mode. The volumetric water flux,
each sample measurement. The structure and morphology of Jv, was determined at a certain time interval by measuring the
resultant membranes were examined by a Zeiss EVO 50 scanning weight changes of the feed tank with a digital mass balance
electron microscope (SEM). Dry membrane samples were frozen connected to a data logging system.
in liquid nitrogen and subsequently cracked in order to obtain the
cross sections. The samples were then carefully mounted on the
SEM stubs and dried overnight in a 50 1C vacuum oven. An 3. Results and discussions
Emitech SC7620 gold sputter coater was used to deposit a layer
of gold on the samples under argon environment. 3.1. Fabrication of dual-layer hollow fibers substrates

2.5.2. Pure water permeability (PWP) of dual-layer hollow fibers
membranes before and after cross-linking modification
Four pieces of dual-layer hollow fibers were potted into a module
and sealed to prepare a lab-scale module with an effective length of
21 cm. PWP experiments were performed by using two to three
modules from the same batch of the membrane spinning process.
Milli-Q ultra pure water was circulated through the shell side of the
membrane module under a pressure of 1 bar for 90 min to compact
the membrane prior to PWP measurement [21]. The PWP of the
membranes (l m  2 h  1 bar  1) was calculated by:
V thickness. There are two possible reasons associated with this
PWP ¼
tADP
where V is the volume of permeate taken (l) per determined time, t
(h); A is the filtration area of the dual-layer membrane (m2); and DP
3.1.1. Effect of the air gap and the ratio of bore fluid to inner dope
flow rate on the morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membranes
The effect of the air gap and ratio of bore fluid to inner dope
flow rate were observed by simultaneous spinning of PAI/LiCl/
NMP (14/3.8/82.2 wt%) as the outer polymer dope solution and
PES/NMP (16/84 wt%) as the inner polymer dope solution. Fig. 1
shows the cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber
samples and illustrates how the air gap affects the inner contour
morphology at 1:1 (wt/wt) ratio of inner dope to bore fluid flow
rate. It is clearly observed from Fig. 1a that the fiber spun at 1 cm
air gap has irregular inner contour resulting in uneven wall
ð1Þ
phenomenon. At a lower air gap, the polymer molecules have a
shorter time to relax and release the stress after extruding out of
the spinneret. The instantaneous demixing and solidification at
 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246
Fig. 1. Cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membrane spun by using dope formula B (PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 wt% and PES/NMP 16/84 wt%) at different
air gaps: (a) 1 cm; (b) 5 cm; (c) 10 cm with inner dope flow rate to bore fluid flow rate ratio of 1:1 (wt/wt).
the outer side of the fiber caused by the strong external coagulant
tended to freeze the polymer molecules, forcing the stress held by
the macromolecules to release toward lumen radial direction
[24]. The second is that, when the pressure inside the fiber lumen
is low due to insufficient supply of bore fluid, there will be a
compression of the inner wall because of a rapid formation of the
lumen skin when a strong bore fluid is used [25].
Two approaches were carried out to confirm the above
hypotheses. (1) Fig. 1b and c show the SEM pictures of fiber cross
section morphology spun at 5 and 10 cm air gap, respectively. It
can be seen that the irregularity of the inner contour of the fibers
became less severe with an increase in the air gap. When the air
gap was increased, the stress accumulated within the polymer
chains in the spinneret can be reduced gradually, as the outer part
of the nascent fiber was still soft allowing the polymer chains to
re-arrange and relax in the period of passing through the air gap
[24,26]. (2) Fig. 2a shows the cross section morphology of hollow
fiber membrane spun at 1 cm air gap and inner dope to bore fluid
ratio of 2:3 (wt/wt). By increasing the bore fluid flow rate, the
irregularity of the inner contour can be prevented. Santoso et al.
[25] also reported that increasing the flow rate of bore fluid can
maintain a uniform inner layer structure.
However, it seems that increasing the bore fluid flow rate in
combination with an increase in air gap can lead to the formation
of big macrovoids (Fig. 2b) and cracks on the fiber cross-section
(Fig. 2c) though it can avoid the irregularity of the inner contour.
The formation mechanism of macrovoids in the phase separation
has been studied extensively in the literature [27–29]. Since
water was also used as the bore fluid that was in contact with
the inner polymer dope first, resulting in an earlier phase
inversion than the outer polymer dope, the macrovoids tended
to develop from the inner side toward the outer layer. Big
macrovoids are not generally favorable because it can reduce
the mechanical strength of the hollow fiber membrane.
241
3.1.2. Effects of coagulation bath temperature and dope flow rate
Coagulation bath temperature has an effect on the structure
and morphology of the resultant hollow fiber membranes. Thus
the membrane structure can be tailored simply by varying the
system temperature [30]. Fig. 3 shows the morphologies of dual
layer hollow fiber membranes spun at 25 and 40 1C coagulation
bath temperatures. A significant change of the cross-section
morphology has been observed when the coagulation bath
temperature increased from 25 to 40 1C. The twisted finger-like
macrovoids formed at 25 1C spun (Fig. 3a) disappeared and
became straight at 40 1C (Fig. 3b). The increase in coagulation
bath temperature enhanced the thermodynamic stability of the
polymer solutions, leading to a delayed demixing that seems to
allow the polymer molecules to re-arrange [19].
However, the increase in water bath temperature made the
boundary between the outer layer and inner layer visible as
pointed by the arrow on Fig. 3b. The major reason might be due
to the different solidification rates between the outer and the
inner polymer dope solutions, as the bore fluid temperature was
at ambient temperature (25 1C). The inner layer experienced
instantaneous demixing due to the thermodynamic instability
while the delayed demixing occurred on the outer layer. The
fibers that spun based on the ratio of outer to inner dope flow rate
of 1:3.2 (wt/wt) has an outer layer with a thickness of around
25 mm. As the ratio changes to 1:2.4 (wt/wt), the outer layer
became thicker which is around 40 mm (Fig. 3c).
3.1.3. Effect of non-solvent additive on the morphology of the dual-
layer hollow fiber membranes
The effect of the addition of an additive in the outer dope of PAI/
NMP system is shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 4 shows the cross section
morphology of the dual layer hollow fiber membrane obtained by
simultaneous spinning of PAI/NMP (14/86 in wt%) as the outer layer
242 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246

Fig. 2. Cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membrane spun by using dope formula B (PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 wt% and PES/NMP 16/84 wt%) at different
air gaps: (a) 1 cm; (b) 5 cm; (c) 10 cm with inner dope flow rate to bore fluid flow rate ratio of 2:3 (wt/wt).

Fig. 3. Cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membrane spun at coagulation bath temperature of 25 1C (a) and 40 1C (b) and (c) at air gap of 5 cm with PEG
400 as the additive of inner polymer dope. Ratio of outer layer to inner layer thickness: (b) 1/4 and (c) 1/3.

and PES/LiCl/NMP (16/6/78 in wt%) as the inner layer (composition
A). A separation of two layers formed by each polymer dope solution
can be clearly observed, suggesting the interpenetration delay of the
inner and outer dopes. Fig. 5 shows the cross section morphology of
the dual layer hollow fiber membrane obtained by simultaneous
spinning of PAI/LiCl/NMP (14/3.8/82.2 in wt%) as the outer layer and
PES/LiCl/NMP (16/6/78 in wt%) as the inner layer (composition E). No
delamination can be observed as the outer dope viscosity increased
significantly to 8.2 Pa s when 3.8% LiCl was added. The high dope
viscosity delays the diffusion of the non-solvent to the interface.
Similar result has been reported elsewhere [2]. Further investigation
is needed to achieve a better understanding for this delamination
issue.
In order to fabricate a dual layer membrane with a porous
inner layer, two types of additives, PEG400 and LiCl, were added
into the PES solution as the inner dope individually. As shown in
 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246 243

Fig. 4. Cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membrane spun by using dope formula A (PAI/NMP 14/86 wt% and PES/LiCl/NMP 16/6/78 wt%) at different air
gaps: (a) 1 cm; (b) 5 cm; with inner dope flow rate to bore fluid flow rate ratio of 2:3 (wt/wt).

Fig. 5. Cross-section morphology of dual layer hollow fiber membrane spun by using dope formula E (PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 wt% and PES/LiCl/NMP 16/6/78 wt%) at
coagulation bath temperature of 25 1C at different air gap: (a) 1 cm; (b) 5 cm.

Fig. 3, using PEG as an additive, the resultant dual layer hollow
fibers exhibited large macrovoids and a big portion of sponge-like
structure, which are unfavourable due to weak mechanical
strength. In contrast, when a small molecular additive, LiCl, was
used, the large macrovoids in the inner layer was suppressed, as
shown in Fig. 5. These observations were believed to be asso-
ciated with the change in the thermodynamic properties and
phase inversion kinetics of the PES systems without and with the
addition of an additive [20,31]. Hansen solubility parameter for
each component in PES system is summarized in Table 3, from
which the total solubility parameter difference can be derived
(Table 4). PES systems without an additive and with 10% PEG 400
as the additive have the total solubility parameter difference (Ddt)
of 1.08 and 0.98 (MPa)1/2. The addition of 6% LiCl significantly
increases Ddt to 11.9 (MPa)1/2 which enhances the thermody-
namic instability [32]. However, the addition of LiCl increased the
viscosity of PES solution significantly from 0.5 Pa s (polymer and
solvent only) to 6.9 Pa s (with 6% LiCl), as listed in Table 4, due to
the strong interaction of the additive with the solvent. A high
viscosity of a spinning dope slows down the non-solvent diffusion
into the polymer solution leading to a delayed demixing, and
thus, suppresses the formation of big macrovoids [20].
3.2. Substrate characteristics: pure water permeability (PWP),
MWCO, and pore size distribution
The PWP and MWCO of hollow fiber membranes prepared
with different conditions are presented in Table 5. It can be seen
244 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246

Table 3 after PEI cross-linking for PES. Hereafter the membrane was
Hansen solubility parameter. denoted as dual layer FO hollow fiber with a code of membrane
substrate—PEI molecular weight, such as C-23-5-50K. The intrin-
Component dd (MPa)1/2 dp (MPa)1/2 dh (MPa)1/2 dt (MPa)1/2n Ref.
sic properties of PAI-PES dual layer hollow fiber membranes with
PES 17.6 10.4 7.8 21.9 [33] a positively charged NF-like selective layer such as water perme-
PEG 400 19.2 3.5 3.6 19.8 [34] ability and rejection of MgCl2 are tabulated in Table 6.
LiCl – –- – 94.2 [35] It can be seen from Table 6 that when the membrane
NMP 18.0 12.3 7.2 23.0 [32]
substrates of C-23-5 and E-23-5 were cross-linked with PEI
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
n 2 2
Total solubility parameter (dt) is calculated by dt ¼ dd þ dp þ dh [32]
2 600 Da, the substrate with a higher MWCO (E-23-5) had a higher
water permeability and a lower rejection of MgCl2. This can be
explained as follows. The C-23-5, C-23-5-T40, and E-23-5

Table 4
Viscosity and solubility parameter of polymer dope solutions.
1.6
a b n
Composition Viscosity, (Pa s) Ddt ¼9dsolvent-additive
1.4
 dpolymernn9 (MPa)1/2

Pore size distribution, f(d)

1.2
PAI/NMP 14/86 1.5 –
PAI/LiCl/NMP 14/3.8/82.2 8.2 –
1.0
PES/NMP 16/84 0.5 1.08
PES/PEG400/NMP 16/10/74 0.8 0.98
0.8
PES/LiCl/NMP 16/6/78 6.9 11.9

a 0.6
Composition is based on wt%.
b
Viscosity was measured at shear rate of 10 s  1 at 25 1C.
n
0.4
dsolvent-additive was calculated based on mol fractions of total solubility
parameter of solvent and additive.
nn 0.2
dpolymer is total solubility parameter of polymer.
0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Pore diameter, nm
Table 5 Fig. 6. Pore size distributions (f(d)) of PAI-PES dual layer hollow fiber membranes
Dimension, PWP and MWCO of dual-layer hollow fiber substrates spun at different ((’) C-23-1; (&) C-23-5; (m) C-23-5-T40 ; (n) D-23-5-T40; (K) E-23-1; (J) E-23-5) .
conditions.

Membrane Dimension PWP, Outer skin

substrate code (l m  2 h  1 bar  1) MWCO, (kDa)
OD, ID,
(mm) (mm)

C-23-1 1.43 1.08 111 7 26 9

% Transmission

C-23-5 1.43 1.07 135 7 3 15.7

C-23-5-T40 1.43 1.05 189 7 27 43.3
D-23-5-T40 1.44 1.04 162 7 14 23.6
E-23-1 1.38 1.02 119 7 34 20.5
E-23-5 1.39 1.03 149 7 16 30.8

that all fibers possessed quite large dimensions (OD/ID 1.40/

1.05 mm/mm). A large fiber lumen is favourable for the fluid flow
with less resistance. From this table, it is clear that PWP increased 1850 1650 1450 1250 1050 850 650
as the air gap increased. A similar trend is also shown for MWCO
Wave length (cm-1)
of the outer skin. This is in agreement with the change of the pore
size and pore size distribution presented in Fig. 6. As the Fig. 7. FTIR spectra of PES before (——) and after (----) PEI cross-linking.
temperature of the coagulation bath increased from 25 to 40 1C,
the PWP and the outer skin MWCO also increased for fibers spun
at the same air gap due to the increasing of the thermodynamic
stability of the system as discussed previously. Furthermore, it is Table 6
Intrinsic properties of dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes*.
depicted from Fig. 6 that the viscosity of inner dope affects the pore
size distribution of the resultant fibers. Fibers spun with inner Substrate Polyethylenimine, MW 600 Da Polyethylenimine, MW
polymer dope having viscosity of 6.9 Pa s (E-23-1 and E-23-5) have code 50–100 kDa
a narrower pore size distribution than that having a lower viscosity.
Water permeability, Rej. Water permeability, Rej.
(l m  2 h  1 bar  1) MgCl2, (l m  2 h  1 bar  1) MgCl2,
3.3. Intrinsic properties of dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes (%) (%)

The cross-linking reaction was taken place at the outer layer of C-23-5 6.5 83 14.4 80
the dual layer substrate between PAI and PEI. The details of the C-23-5-T40 – - 22.5 55
E-23-5 22.6 58 15.9 89
cross-linking reaction and charge characteristic can be found
elsewhere [18]. The PES as the inner layer remains intact as n
Condition of polyethylenimine (PEI) crosslinking: 1% PEI aqueous solution in
shown in Fig. 7. There is no change in FTIR spectra before and 70 1C water bath for 75 min.
 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246 245

substrates had a MWCO of 15.7, 43.3, and 30.8 kDa, respectively.
When PEI 600 Da was used, the PEI molecules were able to
penetrate into the membrane pores and carried out the cross-
linking reaction inside the membrane matrix. However, when the
MWCO of the substrate was too big, the PEI 600 Da was unable to
fully seal the big pores. Therefore, the water permeability is high
while the rejection is low. To further understand the effect of
MWCO of membrane substrate and the molecular weight of
cross-linker on the water permeability and salt rejection, PEI
50–100 kDa was used to perform chemical cross-linking for C-23-
5, C-23-5-T40, and E-23-5 substrates which have similar or lower
MWCO than the molecular weight of cross-linker. It is interesting
to see that C-23-5 and E-23-5 substrate had a good water
permeability and acceptable salt rejection while C-23-5-T40 sub-
strate had quite poor rejection. This might be due to the
combination of pore size and pore size distribution of each
substrate. As shown in Fig. 6, C-23-5-T40 substrate has a very
broad pore size distribution. Thus, the big pores cannot be fully
sealed during the cross-linking reaction.
3.4. FO performances
The FO performance of dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes
with a salt rejection over 80% was determined using a 0.5 M MgCl2
solution as the draw solution and de-ionized water as the feed water
at ambient temperature of 23 1C, and the results are listed in Table 7.
It was found that all of the dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes
have a better performance in the AL-FW orientation than in the AL-
DS orientation, similar to the results reported previously [18]. The
Js/Jv in the AL-FW for all membranes is much smaller compared with
their counterparts in the AL-DS orientation. This might be due to the
shielding effect occurred at the interface between the high concen-
tration draw solution and the positively charged active layer in the
AL-DS orientation by the counter ions [36] and consequently, the
active layer of the membrane was unable to reject the co-ions.
Table 7
Performance of dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes applied in FO process*.
Membrane code AL-facing-DS AL-facing-FW
Jv, (l m  2 h  1) Js/Jv, (g l  1) Jv, (l m  2 h  1)
C-23-5-600 14.5 5.9 20.6
C-23-5-50K - – 24.3
E-23-5-50K 15.5 5.4 27.5
n
Draw solution: 0.5 M MgCl2 and feed water: DI water.
However, in the AL-FW orientation, the salt concentration at the
interfaces between the outer layer and the inner support layer was
lower than the bulk concentration of the draw solution due to water
dilution. Therefore, the shielding effect may not be severe and the
co-ions can be repelled by the positively charged outer layer of the
membrane. In addition, the facilitated transport in the AL-DS
orientation (salt flux and salt repulsion are in the same direction)
and retarded transport in the AL-FW orientation (salt flux and salt
repulsion are in the opposite direction) also played roles [18].
Furthermore, the water flux in the orientation of AL-FW is higher
than that in AL-DS as shown in Table 7. Normally, AL-FW is known
to show a lower flux due to more severe dilutive ICP. The lower than
expected water flux in AL-DS might be due to the high salt flux. As a
result, the salt concentration at the interface of the selective layer
and porous support increased, leading to the decrease in the
effective osmotic pressure difference across the membrane.
Table 8 compares the FO performance of the dual layer hollow
fiber membranes developed in current work with other single
layer and dual layer membranes reported in the literature. It
seems that the water flux of C-23-5-600, C-23-5-50K and E-23-5-
50K dual layer FO hollow fiber membranes in the AL-FW orienta-
tion are much higher than other membranes with comparable Js/Jv
values. This may be attributed to the porous inner layer, that can
be remained intact during the chemical cross-linking treatment,
to overcome the concentrative ICP within the inner layer.
4. Conclusions
Microporous dual layer hollow fiber membranes using PAI as
the selective layer and PES as the inner support layer have been
successfully fabricated with a delamination-free structure. The
compositions of the outer and inner polymer solutions, air gap
and coagulation water bath temperature, etc. played key roles in
determining the morphology and structure of dual layer hollow
fiber membranes.
Following a simple chemical cross-linking treatment on the
microporous dual layer hollow fibers using a PEI solution, dual-
layer FO hollow fiber membranes with a positively charged NF-
like selective layer can be developed. The resultant novel FO
Js/Jv, (g l  1) membranes present promising performance in the AL-FW orien-
tation for FO application. A water flux of 27.5 l m  2 h  1 was
0.3
achieved using 0.5 M MgCl2 as draw solution and DI-water as feed
0.3
0.2 at room temperature. The newly developed dual-layer hollow
fibers outperform all the single layer and dual-layer NF mem-
branes reported in the literature for FO applications.

Table 8
Comparison of various membranes used in FO process.

Membrane PWP, Rejection MgCl2, FO: AL-facing-FW Testing conditions Ref.

(l m  2 h  1 bar  1) (%)
Jv, Js/Jv, Feed Draw
(l m  2 h  1) (g l  1) solution solution

C-23-5-600 6.5 83 20.6 0.3 DI-water 0.5 M MgCl2 Current

C-23-5-50K 14.4 80 20.6 0.3 work
E-23-5-50K 15.9 89 27.5 0.2
DL-PBI-PES 1.74 87 7.5 0.1 DI-water 1.0 M MgCl2 [3]
Positively charged FO single layer PAI hollow fiber 2.25 93 8.4 0.3 DI-water 0.5 M MgCl2 [18]
Positively charged FO single layer PAI hollow fiber 2.19 91 9.7 0.3
Positively charged FO PAI flat sheet membrane 7.56 87 19.2 0.5 DI-water 0.5 M MgCl2 [37]
Neutrally charged FO single layer hollow fiber 4.3 85 13 0.2 DI-water 0.5 M Na2SO4 [38]
Double dense layer flat sheet membrane (thickness 0.17 99 10.3 70.3 0.08 DI-water 2.0 M MgCl2 [39]
35 mm)
Cellulose acetate hollow fiber NF membrane 5.56 15 5 – DI-water 2.0 M MgCl2 [40]
246 L. Setiawan et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 421–422 (2012) 238–246
Acknowledgements
We thank Ms Susan Sulaiman for her kind assistance in
conducting FO experiments. This research grant is supported by
the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Environ-
mental & Water Technologies Strategic Research Programme and
administered by the Environment & Water Industry Programme
Office (EWI) of the PUB (EWI RFP 0801-IRIS-05). We also acknowl-
edge the funding support from Singapore Economic Development
Board to Singapore Membrane Technology Centre.
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