Vahid Vatanpour - National Petrochemical Company, Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, P.O. Box 1435884711, Tehran, Iran.
Mahdieh Safarpour - National Petrochemical Company, Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, P.O. Box 1435884711, Tehran, Iran.
Hamed Zarrabi - National Petrochemical Company, Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, P.O. Box 1435884711, Tehran, Iran.
Hamed Nasri - National Petrochemical Company, Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, P.O. Box 1435884711, Tehran, Iran.

In this study, polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis membranes were prepared by interfacial polymerization of m-henylenediamine (MPD) and 1,3,5-benzene tricarboxylic acid chloride or trimesoyl chloride (TMC) monomers. Also, the effect of triethylamine (TEA) as an acylation catalyst and camphor sulfonic acid (CSA) as a surfactant was investigated on the performance of the prepared membranes. The results revealed with the addition of the 4 wt.% TEA and 4 wt.% CSA, the salt retention increased from 57% to 95.3% without loss in the water permeability.

Interfacial polymerization, Reverse osmosis, Desalination, Thin film composite