Mesoscopic Simulations for Transport of Water and Salt Through Desalination Membranes

We extend our studied the influence of multicomponent salt solutions on water and salt transport in charged membranes at the mesoscale using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. This technique allow us to reach the larger and time scales that can bridge the gap between atomistic and mesoscopic simulations. This insight will show a basic understanding for the future design of desalination membranes for water purification technologies. The polymer, salts, and water are modeled by course-grained beads interacting via standard short-range soft repulsion and smeared charge electrostatic potentials. Our simulations reproduce the results in good agreement with experimental and our atomistic simulations works, showing that diffusion of salt and water are influenced by cation sizes (mono and divalent), salt concentrations, and ionic strength of polymers.