Novel composite membranes prepared by interfacial polymerization on polypropylene fiber supports pretreated by ozone-induced polymerization

Abstract

Interfacial polymerization (IP) is a powerful technique for the fabrication of thin film composite (TFC) membranes. In this work, porous polypropylene fiber films were used as a support to fabricate TFC nanofiltration membrane using IP technique. Firstly, the surface of polypropylene fiber film was hydrophilized by introducing peroxide onto the membrane surface using ozone treatment followed by grafting acrylamide. And then interfacial polymerization could be successfully proceeding on the hydrophilized PP membrane. The monomeric system chosen for IP was m-phenylenediamine (MPDA) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC). The ozone treatment time was investigated, and in the range of 5–10min ozone treatment time, the PP fiber membrane had an available amount of peroxides for grafting while keeping the mechanical strength. The characteristics of the original membrane, grafted membrane and TFC membrane were studied with various analytical methods, such as SEM and FTIR-ATR. Meanwhile, the nanofiltration performance was evaluated with aqueous solutions of Na2SO4 (2g/L) and Fast Green FCF (MW 808.84, 10mg/L). The rejection rate of 60% and 90% were achieved for Na2SO4 and Fast Green FCF, respectively, at a transmembrane pressure of 0.5MPa.