Preparation Thin Film Nanocomposite Membrane Incorporating PMMA Modified MWNT for Nanofiltration

Abstract

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) grafted by Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) can well disperse in organic solutions like toluene，which were synthesized via a microemulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of acid-modified multiwalled carbon nanotubes (c-MWNTs). The polyamide thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes with embedded PMMA-MWNTs were prepared using piperazine (PIP) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) on a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) porous substrate via interfacial polymerization for selective permeability. PMMA-MWNTs’ structure was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR), Raman spectrophotmetry (RAM), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). Orthogonal experiment was used to study the effect of PIP concentration, TMC concentration and concentration of PMMA-MWNTs in organic phase. The results showed that the membrane performances is good, Na2SO4 rejection is above 98% and water flux is up to 150% improvement over the TFC membrane as PIP in aqueous phase was 2g/L, TMC and PMMA-MWNTs in organic phase were 4g/L and 0.67g/L, respectively . Demonstrated PMMA-MWNTs in the nanofiltration membrane can improve selective permeability.