Preparation and characterization of low-cost zirconia/clay membrane for removal of acid orange 74 dye

Abstract

This work sheds light on the development of new low-cost ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane based on Moroccan clay and zirconia. The ceramic support with a pore diameter of 1.95 µm was prepared by uniaxial pressing of clay powder and corn starch followed by sintering at temperature of 950 °C. To prepare the zirconia membrane layer on the clay support, zirconyl oxalate sol was prepared through an aqueous sol–gel route using zirconium oxychloride as a zirconia source and oxalic acid as a peptizing agent. The clay support was coated with resulting zirconyl oxalate particles using dip-coating technique and then sintered at temperature of 600 °C. The prepared zirconia UF membrane has a pore diameter of 80 nm and a permeability of 36 L h−1m−2bar−1. Finally, the performance of prepared zirconia UF membrane was assessed by the filtration of acid orange 74 dye. It was confirmed that the membrane could be effective for removal of soluble dye solution. Furthermore, it was shown that the rejection remarkably increases when the feed concentration increases from 50 to 150 ppm. On the other hand, the applied pressure does not significantly affect dye rejection (about 98%) in the range from 1 to 3 bar.