Investigation of the Effect of Anionic and Cationic Surfactants on the Performance of Polyamide Membrane Nanofiltration

Abstract

Over the past decades, the sharp increase in population growth and industrialization in developing countries has reduced the quality and quantity of water resources. Water Treatment and purification technologies are rapidly developing in membrane separation processes. In this study, the effect of anionic and cationic surfactants on the performance of polyamide membrane nanofiltration was investigated experimentally. Nanofiltration membranes were constructed by adding anionic surfactant Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate and Hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide cationic with a filming machine. The highest percentage of salt excretion related to the polyamide nanofiltration membrane without adding surfactant with the amount of 16.19% at 180 minutes. Also, the greatest amount of water flowing from the polyamide nanofiltration membrane is related to the time of 30 minutes and the state where the anionic surfactant is added to the membrane by weight of 10%. In this case, the amount of water flowing through the membrane of polyamide nanofiltration was 37.76 L/m2. When anionic surfactant was added to the membrane at a rate of 10%, the membrane water flux was 41.48% higher than the pure membrane (no additive).