Mahdi Seyfollahi; Habib Etemadi; Reza Yegani; Mahyar Rabeii; Elham Shokri
Abstract
In this study, membranes were prepared by pristine and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted nanodiamond (ND) embedded in cellulose acetate (CA) as matrix polymer via non-solvent induced phase separation method. The antifouling properties of the membranes were studied during filtration of ...
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In this study, membranes were prepared by pristine and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted nanodiamond (ND) embedded in cellulose acetate (CA) as matrix polymer via non-solvent induced phase separation method. The antifouling properties of the membranes were studied during filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions and the governing fouling mechanisms of the membranes were also investigated using the Hermia model. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed that ND was successfully functionalized by PEG. CA/ND-PEG nanocomposite membranes have higher hydrophilicity, porosity, water uptake, mechanical strength and a lower amount of adsorbed protein than pure CA and CA/ND membranes. Besides, the antifouling performance of the CA/ND-PEG (0.5 wt.%) nanocomposite membrane also witnessed considerable improvement, in comparison with that of pure CA and CA/ND (0.5 wt.%) membranes. The obtained results showed that the best fit to experimental data for all membranes (pure and nanocomposite membranes) corresponds to the cake layer formation model.
Elham Shokri; Reza Yegani
Abstract
In this work, polysulfone (PSf) mixed matrix membranes were prepared by incorporating modified montmorillonite with lysine amino acid (MMT-Lys) for arsenic removal from water. Different tests including XRD, zeta potential, FE-SEM, contact angle, and pure water flux (PWF) were carried out to characterize ...
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In this work, polysulfone (PSf) mixed matrix membranes were prepared by incorporating modified montmorillonite with lysine amino acid (MMT-Lys) for arsenic removal from water. Different tests including XRD, zeta potential, FE-SEM, contact angle, and pure water flux (PWF) were carried out to characterize modified MMT and fabricated mixed matrix membranes. XRD analysis showed that MMT was successfully modified with Lys and its zeta potentials transferred from negative to positive after modification. Positive charge of MMT-Lys made it proper for anionic arsenic removal from water. The obtained results showed that pure water flux and surface hydrophilicity of the membranes improved as MMT-Lys contents increased from 0 to 1.5 wt.%. The batch adsorption of fabricated membranes as a function of arsenic initial concentration and solution pH was investigated. The removal efficiency was increased with increasing the arsenic initial concentration; however it was decreased with increasing pH of solution. The results also revealed that the arsenic adsorption was most favorable in the neutral pH. Moreover, membrane reusability of the PSf/MMT-Lys (1.5 wt.%) membrane was assessed by conducting five cycles of adsorption-desorption experiments in dead-end filtration. The obtained results showed the applicability of the prepared membrane for multiple cycles.