Selective transport mechanism through the reverse osmosis membrane

The determination of transport parameters used for inorganic solutes was extended to various organic solutes including those which show negative rejection. The physical meaning of the three transport parameters (hydraulic permeability, solute permeability and reflection coefficient) was studied. The solute permeability obtained both from diffusion and reverse osmosis experiments using a symmetric membrane coincided well, and it could be split into diffusion coefficient and partition coefficient by the former experiments. It was also found that results for symmetric and asymmetric membranes, which have the same reflection coefficient, could be transformed only by correction of the thickness.