Preparation and antifouling properties of PVDF ultrafiltration membranes with polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers and hydrolysed PSMA (H-PSMA) as additives

Abstract

Polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers were used as hydrophilic additives to study their effect on the performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. PVDF UF membranes were prepared by the phase inversion method with hydrolyzed polystyrene-co-maleic anhydride (H-PSMA) and PANI nanofibers as additives. PANI nanofibers were synthesized by rapid mixing reaction and were used as a hydrophilic modifying agent with varying concentrations (0–1.5 wt.%) in the membranes. The synthesized PANI nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis. Hydrolyzed PSMA was prepared by the hydrolysis of PSMA and was used as a novel pore forming additive. The addition of PANI nanofibers into the membranes increased the membrane hydrophilicity, porosity, water uptake and permeability. The membranes also showed good antifouling nature during BSA (bovine serum albumin) filtration when compared to the pristine membrane without PANI nanofibers. Membrane with 1.0 wt.% PANI content showed highest permeability among the synthesized membranes. The membrane having highest permeability was subjected to heavy metal ion rejection which showed high rejection of 98.52% and 97.38% for heavy metal ions Pb2+ and Cd2+ respectively.