Dopamine modification of the α-Al2O3 supports
Dopamine modification of the α-Al2O3 supports was done
according to the procedure reported elsewhere (Liu et al., 2013b;
Yuan et al., 2014). Dopamine (2 mg/mL) was dissolved in 10 mM
Tris–HCl (pH: 8.5) in an open watch glass (diameter: 180 mm).
Then the top surface of the porous α-Al2O3 disks was treated with
dopamine at 20 °C for 20 h, leading to PDA layer deposited on the
support surface (Fig. S2). After drying, ion rejection and water flux
of the PDA-modified α-Al2O3 supports for seawater desalination is
similar with those of the non-modified α-Al2O3 supports (Fig. S3),
indicating that PDA modification has no discernibly negative effect
on the mass transfer resistance of the support (Liu et al., 2013b).