Effect of cellulose triacetate membrane thickness on forward‐osmosis performance and application for spent electroless nickel plating baths

ABSTRACT Cellulose triacetate (CTA) forward‐osmosis (FO) membranes were prepared via the phase inversion method. The influence of thickness on the performance and morphology of CTA FO membranes was discussed in detail. When the thickness of the membrane was 50.0 ± 0.5 μm (CTA4), the prototype CTA membranes displayed a water flux of 20.2 L m−2 h−1 and a reverse salt transport of 14.6 g m−2 h−1 using 1 mol/L NaCl as the draw solution and deionized water as the feed solution during the FO process at 25 °C. In addition, the high‐performance CTA4 FO membranes have been used to process spent electroless nickel plating baths where the water flux could reach 13 L m−2 h−1 and NiSO4·6H2O crystals occurred in the feed solution of the spent electroless nickel plating baths. The recovery rates of NiSO4·6H2O and water from the spent electroless nickel plating baths were 44.54% and 53.53%, respectively. This study focused on improving membrane design for the FO process and finding a new method of waste liquor or wastewater treatment. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45049.