Chitosan-furosemide/pectin surface functionalized thin film nanofiltration membrane with improved antifouling behavior for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment

Abstract

A high-performance thin film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membrane was prepared by the furosemide-modified chitosan (CS@FS) composite assisted pectin (PC) functionalization of the polyethersulfone (PES) NF membrane for antibiotic removal and pharmaceutical wastewater treatment. Analyses by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) confirmed successful modification of CS. The effect of CS@FS-co-PC on physicochemical characteristics and separation performance of the prepared membrane was studied. The CS@FS-co-PC TFC membranes indicated a smoother surface with decreased water contact angle. Upon introduction of CS@FS-co-PC with 0.5 wt.% CS@FS on the membrane surface, the resultant TFC membrane (TFC-0.5) achieved pure water flux (PWF) of 47.8 L/m2h, high flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 94.2%, and irreversible fouling ratio (DRir) of 5.8%. All prepared TFC membranes showed more than 91% rejection for both studied antibiotics. In the optimized conditions, ceftriaxone (CRO) and cefixime (CFM) rejections using TFC-0.5 membrane were 99.9 and 99.7%, respectively. Moreover, the CS@FS-co-PC TFC NF membranes show outstanding separation performance for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment (COD removal efficiency of 92.0%±1.1, TDS removal of 56.1 ± 1.0%, and complete turbidity removal). The present study aimed to prepare a TFC membrane that can indicate high antibiotic rejection and resistance to fouling for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment applications.