Performance and deterioration of forward osmosis membrane exposed to various dose of gamma-ray irradiation

Abstract The effect of ionizing radiation on membrane performance of forward osmosis (FO) was investigated at doses of 20 and 200 kGy. The performance of CTA membrane and TFC membrane was compared in terms of water flux, nuclide retention and flux, reverse NaCl flux. The changes in membrane surface properties at different doses were also analyzed. For both membranes, the water flux increased with increase of absorbed dose, mainly due to the enhancement of membrane hydrophilicity. The retention of Co ions and Sr ions, reverse NaCl flux, surface chemical information and functional group were not significantly affected by dose. However, the surface morphology and roughness changed with increase of dose. The modification of the commercial FO membrane is necessary for the enhancement of the irradiation resistance, which is very important for practical application FO technology in radioactive wastewater treatment.