Abstract
There have been developments in the optimization of polyethersulfone (PES) membranes, to provide antifouling and mechanically stable surfaces which are vital to water purification applications. There is a variety of approaches to prepare nanocomposite PES membranes. However, an optimized condition for making such membranes is in high demand. Using experimental design and statistical analysis (one-half fractional factorial design), this study investigates the effect of different parameters featured in the fabrication of membranes, as well as on the performance of a nanocomposite PES/TiO2 membrane. The optimized parameters obtained in this study are: exposure time of 60 s, immersion time above 10 h, glycerol time of 4 h, and a nonsolvent volumetric ratio (isopropanol/water) of 30/70 for PES and dimethylacetamide (PES-DMAc) membrane and 70/30 for PES and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (PES-NMP) membrane. A comparison of the contributory factors for different templating agents along with a nanocomposite membrane control revealed that F127 triblock copolymer resulted in an excellent antifouling membrane with a higher bovine serum albumin rejection and flux recovery of 83.33%.
Highlights
Membranes are used for a variety of applications including food packaging [1], rechargeable batteries [2], hydrogen production [3], gas separation [4], biomedical applications [5], biodesalination [6], wastewater treatment [7] and fuel cells [8], etc
It has been reported that the concentration of TiO2 nanoparticles within Polyether sulfone (PES) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrices using the phase inversion approach is about 2 wt.%, there is still a discrepancy in the literature with respect to TiO2 coating on PES membranes [14]
This research considers the preparation of PES membranes through the manipulation of nanocomposite membrane fabrication variables, including air exposure time, immersion time, solvent ratio (ratio of less volatile solvent (NMP) to more volatile solvent DMAc), glycerol time, and nonsolvent ratio that effect the support structure and additive materials proportion, and different templating agents poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), Pluronic F127 (F127), PEG 60 wt.%– PDMS 40 wt.% copolymer (IM22, PDMS stands for polydimethylsiloxane) which effectively improve the permeability, self-cleaning, and antifouling properties of a nanocomposite membrane
Summary
Membranes are used for a variety of applications including food packaging [1], rechargeable batteries [2], hydrogen production [3], gas separation [4], biomedical applications [5], biodesalination [6], wastewater treatment [7] and fuel cells [8], etc. Phase separation mechanism is based on a ternary system consisting of a solvent (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone/dimethylacetamide, NMP/DMAc), a nonsolvent (water/isopropanol), and a polymer (PES) [10] This research considers the preparation of PES membranes through the manipulation of nanocomposite membrane fabrication variables, including air exposure time, immersion time, solvent ratio (ratio of less volatile solvent (NMP) to more volatile solvent DMAc), glycerol time, and nonsolvent ratio (isopropanol to water) that effect the support structure and additive materials proportion (titanium dioxide), and different templating agents poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), Pluronic F127 (F127), PEG 60 wt.%– PDMS 40 wt.% copolymer (IM22, PDMS stands for polydimethylsiloxane) which effectively improve the permeability, self-cleaning, and antifouling properties of a nanocomposite membrane. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and UV-visible spectrophotometer are applied for measuring the skin layer thickness and rejection, respectively
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