Abstract
In this study, membranes were prepared by pristine and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted nanodiamond (ND) embedded in cellulose acetate (CA) as matrix polymer via non-solvent induced phase separation method. The antifouling properties of the membranes were studied during filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions and the governing fouling mechanisms of the membranes were also investigated using the Hermia model. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed that ND was successfully functionalized by PEG. CA/ND-PEG nanocomposite membranes have higher hydrophilicity, porosity, water uptake, mechanical strength and a lower amount of adsorbed protein than pure CA and CA/ND membranes. Besides, the antifouling performance of the CA/ND-PEG (0.5 wt.%) nanocomposite membrane also witnessed considerable improvement, in comparison with that of pure CA and CA/ND (0.5 wt.%) membranes. The obtained results showed that the best fit to experimental data for all membranes (pure and nanocomposite membranes) corresponds to the cake layer formation model.
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