%0 Journal Article %T Physical Studies of Forward Osmosis Membranes Prepared by Cross-linking Polyvinyl Alcohol on Electrospun Nanofibers %J Journal of Membrane Science and Research %I FIMTEC & MPRL %Z 2476-5406 %A Arsat, Nurafidah %A Jaafar, Juhana %A Lau, Woei Jye %A Othman, Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan %A A Rahman, Mukhlis %A Aziz, Farhana %A Yusof, Norhaniza %A Wan Salleh, Wan Norharyati %A Ismail, Ahmad Fauzi %D 2020 %\ 10/01/2020 %V 6 %N 4 %P 359-366 %! Physical Studies of Forward Osmosis Membranes Prepared by Cross-linking Polyvinyl Alcohol on Electrospun Nanofibers %K Electrospinning %K Electrospun nanofibrous membranes %K Composite membranes %K Forward osmosis %K Polyvinyl alcohol %R 10.22079/jmsr.2020.117738.1310 %X The conventional nanofiber-supported forward osmosis (FO) membrane possessed some issues, for example, easy deformation and weak interfacial strength between the substrate and selective layer. A dual-layered composite membrane consists of electrospun nanofibrous membranes (ENMs) as the support layer and cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) top coating as the active layer is fabricated. Hence, the objective of this work is to study the physical properties of the prepared PVA/ polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite membranes. The novelty of this work relies on the new exploitation of the prepared dual-layered thin film nanofibrous composite (TFNC) membranes via the cross-linked technique in the FO process. The experiment works include the fabrication of nanofibrous substrates and selective layer via electrospinning, followed by the PVA cross-linking process prior to the characterisation studies and FO evaluation. FO performance test revealed a comparable water flux with the conventional dual-layered composite membrane, besides exhibited a significantly low Js /Jw ratio. This study indicated that dual-layered cross-linked PVA on electrospun PVDF nanofibers is a promising approach to overcome the drawback of the existing issues in the conventional method of preparing surface coated composite membranes which is a viable option to manufacture high-performance TFNC-FO membranes. %U https://www.msrjournal.com/article_39202_93fac7dea6b32365dafa0e3272f81414.pdf