Milad Fonouni; Habib Etemadi; Reza Yegani; Masoumeh Safary Dehnavi; Naeime Jodeiry
Abstract
In this work, KClO3, K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4, dissolved in sulfuric acid, were used to functionalize microporous Polysulfone (PSf) membranes; fabricated by phase inversion method. The optimum concentrations of oxidizing agent and sulfuric acid and membrane immersion times were determined. FTIR results revealed ...
Read More
In this work, KClO3, K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4, dissolved in sulfuric acid, were used to functionalize microporous Polysulfone (PSf) membranes; fabricated by phase inversion method. The optimum concentrations of oxidizing agent and sulfuric acid and membrane immersion times were determined. FTIR results revealed that the absorbance intensities of -OH and C=O peaks as well as the variety of functional groups in the samples treated by KClO3 are remarkably higher than in the samples treated by K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4, respectively. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) filtration experiments revealed that the total fouling ratio (TFR) and irreversible fouling ratio (IFR) decreased from 73.4% for pristine PSf membrane to 52.9%, 49.4% and 60.4% for treated membranes by Set A (K2Cr2O7), Set B (KClO3) and Set C (KMnO4), respectively. Moreover, IFR of membranes decreased from 45.4% for pristine PSf membrane to 29.9%, 22.4% and 36.1% for treated membranes by Set A, Set B and Set C, respectively.
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 ...
Read More
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.