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Sustainable polyester thin films for membrane desalination developed through interfacial catalytic polymerization

Nature Water volume 3, pages 430–438 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Reverse osmosis membranes are essential in wastewater treatment, water reuse and desalination, but conventional polyamide reverse osmosis membranes rely on toxic amine monomers such as m-phenylenediamine, posing notable health risks. Here we show that an interfacial catalytic polymerization strategy enables the development of sustainable polyester thin films for membrane desalination. This approach improves reaction kinetics and polymerization control, facilitating the efficient polymerization of nature-derived phenol and alcohol compounds as non-toxic, cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to m-phenylenediamine. The interfacial catalyst enhances both monomer diffusion and polymerization, overcoming the limited reactivity of nature-derived monomers to produce homogeneous, dense polyester thin films. The resulting membranes exhibit excellent desalination performance (NaCl rejection 99.2%; flux 31.7 l m−2 h−1 at 15 bar), comparable to commercial BW30 membranes at both coupon and spiral-wound module scales, demonstrating their potential for practical membrane desalination. This work paves the way for further development of sustainable, nature-derived membrane materials for desalination technologies.

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Fig. 1: Preparation and structural characterization of TA-based polyester membrane.
Fig. 2: Investigation of the ICP mechanism.
Fig. 3: Desalination performance and antifouling properties of TA-based polyester membranes.
Fig. 4: Preparation and performance of pilot-scale membranes and modules.

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Data generated in this study are provided in the article and Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21988102 to J.J. and U23A20116 to W.F.) and the Key Development Project of Jiangsu Province (BE2022056 to J.J.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ying Liu, Wangxi Fang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Materials, Soochow University, Suzhou, P. R. China

    Ying Liu, Zenghao Yue, Yuzhang Zhu & Jian Jin

  2. i-Lab, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, P. R. China

    Wangxi Fang & Yunfeng Wang

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China

    Lei Jiang

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  1. Ying Liu
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Contributions

Y.Z., J.J. and L.J. designed the experiments. Y.L. and W.F. performed all the experiments and the theoretical analysis. Z.Y. and Y.W. contributed materials and analysis tools. Y.L., W.F., Y.Z. and J.J. contributed to writing the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuzhang Zhu or Jian Jin.

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Nature Water thanks Huacheng Zhang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary text, including Figs. 1–37, Tables 1–9 and references.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Source files of pore size distributions from polyester networks obtained via molecular dynamics simulation.

Source Data Fig. 2

Source files for the investigation of the ICP mechanism.

Source Data Fig. 3

Source files detailing the performance of desalination and the antifouling properties of RO membranes.

Source Data Fig. 4

Source files regarding the performance of pilot-scale membranes and modules.

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Liu, Y., Fang, W., Yue, Z. et al. Sustainable polyester thin films for membrane desalination developed through interfacial catalytic polymerization. Nat Water 3, 430–438 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00419-6

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