Effective Removal of Methyl blue and Crystal Violet Dyes Using Improved Polysulfone / ZIF-8 Nanocomposite Ultrafiltration Membrane

Abstract

Zeolitic Imidazole framework 8 (ZIF-8) was successfully prepared in an aqueous medium and then dissolved with concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 5% in polysulfone (PSF) to prepare an ultrafiltration membrane. ZIF-8 nanosized material uniformly distributed in the PSF membrane ultrafiltration membrane was prepared in a polar solvent of N,N'-dimethyl formamide (DMF) by phase inversion procedure. Significantly, ZIF-8 enhanced the membrane flux from 50.42 L/m2.h (PSF) to 83.65 L/m2.h at 100 Kpa, and the rejection of methyl blue and crystal violet dyes up to 95.1% and 89.65 %, respectively compared to the PSF membrane without ZIF-8, 41.08%, 46.32%. Wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle, and dead-end filtration experiment were carried out to characterize the morphology and performance of the prepared ZIF-8 and membranes. The hydrophilicity of the membrane was determined by a contact angle test between water and membrane. SEM was used to study the surface and the cross-sectional morphologies.