Novel, one-step synthesis of zwitterionic polymer nanoparticles via distillation-precipitation polymerization and its application for dye removal membrane

G. P. Syed Ibrahim,Abdullah M. Asiri,Inamuddin Inamuddin,Norafiqah Ismail,Arun M. Isloor,Ahmed Fauzi Ismail,Ghulam Md Ashraf

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-16131-9

Abstract

In this work, poly(MBAAm-co-SBMA) zwitterionic polymer nanoparticles were synthesized in one-step via distillation-precipitation polymerization (DPP) and were characterized. [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (SBMA) as monomer and N, N′-methylene bis(acrylamide) (MBAAm) as cross-linker are used for the synthesis of nanoparticles. As far as our knowledge, this is the first such report on the synthesis of poly(MBAAm-co-SBMA) nanoparticles via DPP. The newly synthesized nanoparticles were further employed for the surface modification of polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membranes for dye removal. The modified hollow fiber membrane exhibited the improved permeability (56 L/ m2 h bar) and dye removal (>98% of Reactive Black 5 and >80.7% of Reactive orange 16) with the high permeation of salts. Therefore, the as-prepared membrane can have potential application in textile and industrial wastewater treatment.

Highlights

In the recent years, the discharge of colored micropollutants into the water stream has elevated widespread concernas dyes are toxic, non-biodegradable and carcinogenic[1,2,3]
The results showed that surface hydrophilicity and antifouling nature enhances while increasing the grafting time[43]
Poly(MBAAm-co-SBMA) zwitterionic polymer nanoparticles were synthesized by SBMA as monomer and MBAA as cross-linking agent via distillation-precipitation polymerization (DPP)

Summary

Introduction

The discharge of colored micropollutants into the water stream has elevated widespread concernas dyes are toxic, non-biodegradable and carcinogenic[1,2,3]. Membrane separation techniques have been proved to be the potential alternative[14,15,16,17,18] to remove dye from the wastewater It has many advantages like energy efficient, low-cost, non-toxic, easy to scale up, comprising no chemical reaction, high efficiency and produces less solid waste[19]. Polysulfone (PSF) is one amongst the versatile polymeric material for the preparation of hollow fiber (HF) membranes It has very high thermal, mechanical and chemical resistance along with outstanding film forming ability[32,33]. Poly(MBAAm-co-SBMA) zwitterionic polymer nanoparticles were synthesized by SBMA as monomer and MBAA as cross-linking agent via distillation-precipitation polymerization (DPP). The nanocomposite membrane explored for the dyes such as reactive black 5 (RB 5) and reactive orange 16 (RO 16) rejection

Methods

Results

Conclusion