Pyrochlores: oxygen-rich moieties as ceramic fillers in uplifting the antifouling property and dye removal capacity of polymeric membranes

Abstract

Application of nanostructured polymeric membranes for wastewater treatment is growing exceptionally because of their tunable functionalities, size, composition and morphology which offer immense opportunities for wastewater treatment. Here, for the first time, pyrochlore-type ternary metal oxides are explored as ceramic fillers to prepare mixed matrix membranes (MMMs)/polymeric nanocomposite membranes because of its affinity to water and oxygen. The effect of yttrium titanate (Y2Ti2O7) for the fabrication of polysulfone (PSF) MMMs is examined in terms of hydrophilicity, permeability, protein separation, dye removal and antifouling property. The synthesized pyrochlore oxides and the prepared MMMs are characterized using various techniques. The results show that the PSF MMMs manifest an enhancement in hydrophilicity, permeability and dye removal capacity upon addition of oxygen rich Y2Ti2O7 ceramic species into PSF membrane matrix. The PSF MMM with 1 wt% ceramic loading exhibited remarkable PWF (104 L/m2h), higher fouling resistance ratio and larger permeate flux recovery ratio (96%) compared to 27 L/m2h PWF and 40.57% FRR obtained for the pristine PSF membrane, respectively. Furthermore, significantly higher rejection of Congo red dye (100%), Pb2+ (98%) and Cd2+ (99%) heavy metal ions was achieved for mixed matrix membrane. Thus, Y2Ti2O7 ceramic species can open up new possibilities in enhancing the overall performance of the MMM for separation applications.