Supplementary Data

Thin-film nanocomposite membrane with CNT

positioning in support layer for energy harvesting

from saline water

Moon Son a, Hosik Park b, Lei Liu a, Hyeongyu Choi a, Joon Ha Kim a, and Heechul Choi a,*

a School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and

Technology (GIST), 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea

b Center for Membranes, Advanced Materials Division, Korea Research Institute of Chemical

Technology (KRICT), 141 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-600, Republic of Korea

* Corresponding author. Email: hcchoi@gist.ac.kr, Tel.: +82-62-715-2441, Fax: +82-62-715-

2434

A Manuscript for

Chemical Engineering Journal

KEYWORDS: thin-film nanocomposite; membrane; carbon nanotube; pressure retarded

osmosis; energy harvesting

Fig. S1. Schematic illustration for the reverse osmosis (RO) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes.

Fig. S2. Cost analysis of adding carbon nanotubes (CNT) to the total membrane material cost for thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane. (a) Lab-scale chemicals and polymer purchased by Sigma-Aldrich and Solvay Company; (b) Industry chemicals searched in various companies by web. Solvent: n-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP), Polymer: polyethersulfone (PES), Additive: polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Precursor: trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and m-phenylenediamine (MPD).

Fig. S3. Conceptual illustration of the concentration polarization of TFC, TFN, and TFN-500 membranes at high applied pressure condition in the draw side.