Novel antifouling nanofiltration PES membranes incorporating with C‐KIT‐6 for heavy metal ions removal

Abstract

AbstractThe removal of Pb2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+ from contaminated water was investigated using the curcumin functionalized KIT‐6 (C‐KIT‐6) incorporated polyethersulfone (PES) nanofiltration (NF) membranes. The prepared C‐KIT‐6 was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), zeta potential, Energy dispersive X‐Ray (EDX), and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). EDX mapping, SEM, and FTIR were used to show that C‐KIT‐6 mixed in the membrane. Zeta potential, mechanical properties, pore radius, pore radius distribution, and overall porosity were also studied to further characterize the prepared membranes. The hydrophilicity of the membranes was determined by the water contact angle and pure water flux study, and it was increased with respect to increasing C‐KIT‐6 loading. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of the C‐KIT‐6 incorporated membranes represented favorable alterations in surface roughness resulting in the amelioration of antifouling behavior. The maximum flux recovery ratio (FRR) and minimum irreversible permeability decay rate (DRir) were attained to be 95.2 and 4.8%, respectively, for the membrane with 0.3 wt% C‐KIT‐6 (M2‐C‐KIT‐6). The rejection of all testing heavy metal ions was maximum (Pb2+ = 91.4%, Ni2+ = 93.1% and Zn2+ = 98.0%) for M2‐C‐KIT‐6. Moreover, M2‐C‐KIT‐6 showed good long‐term reusability performance. The obtained results prove the antifouling C‐KIT‐6 incorporated PES NF membranes are potential candidates for heavy metal ion removal.