Membrane application is widespread in water filtration to remove natural organic matter (NOM), especially humic acid. However, there is a significant concern in membrane filtration, which is fouling, which will cause a reduction in the membrane life span, a high energy requirement, and a loss in product quality. Therefore, the effect of a TiO2/PES mixed matrix membrane on different concentrations of TiO2 photocatalyst and different durations of UV irradiation was studied in removing humic acid to determine the anti-fouling and self-cleaning effects. The TiO2 photocatalyst and TiO2/PES mixed matrix membrane synthesised were characterised using attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), contact angle, and porosity. The performances of TiO2/PES membranes of 0 wt.%, 1 wt.%, 3 wt.%, and 5 wt.% were evaluated via a cross-flow filtration system regarding anti-fouling and self-cleaning effects. After that, all the membranes were irradiated under UV for either 2, 10, or 20 min. A TiO2/PES mixed matrix membrane of 3 wt.% was proved to have the best anti-fouling and self-cleaning effect with improved hydrophilicity. The optimum duration for UV irradiation of the TiO2/PES mixed matrix membrane was 20 min. Furthermore, the fouling behaviour of mixed matrix membranes was fitted to the intermediate blocking model. Adding TiO2 photocatalyst into the PES membrane enhanced the anti-fouling and self-cleaning properties.

Polylactic acid is a biodegradable polymer derived from renewable resources, showing potentials in replacing traditional petroleum-based polymers, yet its brittleness limits its applications. Thus, blending polylactic acid with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene as well as incorporation of fillers were used to enhance the mechanical and biodegradability properties of polylactic acid by extrusion compounding. The aims of this study to produce and investigate PLA/ABS blend incorporated with natural filler, NFH and IC to improve the properties pf PLA/ABS blends. Two types of fillers used were Nypa fruticans husk and isolated cellulose from Nypa fruticans husk which was obtained by using Soxhlet extraction. Transform Infrared spectroscopy analysis was used to characterize and verified the extracted substance was isolate cellulose. Tensile, impact and biodegradation test were conducted to investigate the mechanical and biodegradability properties. The optimum blend ratio for polylactic acid/acrylonitrile was 75/25 php base on previous studies, and it was found that the incorporation of both fillers, Nypa fruticans husk and isolated cellulose from Nypa fruticans husk had decreased the tensile strength, elongation at break and impact strength of the composite however increased the Young’s Modulus and biodegradation weight loss. Meanwhile, at similar filler content, the tensile strength, Young’s modulus and biodegradation weight loss of polylactic acid/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene blend incorporated with isolated cellulose were higher value compared to polylactic acid/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene blend incorporated Nypa fruticans husk. Furthermore, morphological studies showed a well-coated filler by matrix and reduction of filler pull out when isolated cellulose was incorporated in polylactic acid/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene blend. Therefore, it was found that the incorporation of isolated cellulose in polylactic acid/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene blend, shows higher mechanical and biodegradation properties than polylactic acid/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene blend incorporated with Nypa fruticans husk.

Polyvinylidene fluoride-co-polytetrafluoroethylene, PVDF-co-PTFE polymer was used as a membrane support. The asymmetric membranes were formed by immersion of casted membrane film into the coagulation bath. This work manipulated the coagulant bath medium by mixing ethanol with distilled water at different weight percentages (0, 25 and 50 wt. % of ethanol). The structures of fabricated membranes were observed to have different morphologies. Higher ethanol content altered the membrane structure from finger-like to sponge-like structure, and hence differed in membrane porosity. Vacuum-based technique was chosen to impregnate the deep eutectic solvent (DES) into the pores of membrane support. DES was prepared by mixing choline chloride (ChCl) and ethylene glycol at a ratio of 1:3. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the membrane morphology changes while in order to determine the immobilization of DES, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis was used. The porosity of fabricated PVDF-co-PTFE membrane was determined by means of gravimetric method. Lastly, the membrane separation performance using CO2 and N2 gasses were used to determine the capability of the supported-DES-membrane.  The results demonstrated the highest immobilization of DES in supported membrane pores was achieved when combination of 25 wt. % of ethanol and 75 wt. % distilled water was used as a coagulant bath medium. The respective membrane has 74.5% porosity with the most excellent performance of CO2 separation at 25.5 x 103 GPU with CO2/N2 selectivity of 2.89.

Chemical treatment is one of the recognized methods that can be implemented to improve the overall performances of biocomposite materials. Unfortunately, trial and error methods were used to determine the optimal ratio between percentage of treatment agent and composite’s properties in the past. Hence, this research focuses on the optimization and validation of coupling agent percentage with properties of novel Polylactic Acid (PLA) / Nypa Fruticans Husks (NFH) biocomposite films via Central Composite Design (CCD) Method. Nypa Fruticans husks was grounded to obtain particulate form and mixed with Polylactic acid (PLA) using solvent casting method. Due to the different polarity between Nypa Fruticans Husks and Polylactic Acid, 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane was used to enhance the properties of the composite films. Central composite design (CCD) method was used to determine the optimized percentage of 3- Aminopropyltriethoxysilane and analysis of variance various (ANOVA) was performed to develop mathematical model to predict the tensile strength value in the range of factors in this research. Apart from that, the enzymatic biodegradation was also performed to investigate the composite’s degradation rate. It was found that, the incorporation of Nypa Fruticans Husks decreased the tensile strength and elongation at break, whereas the modulus of elasticity and degradation rate increased. However, composite films treated with 3% of 3-APE showed increment pattern in tensile strength and modulus of elasticity but decreased in elongation at break and degradation rate, respectively. The enhancement of the mechanical properties after treated with 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane was supported by the SEM micro-graphs and FTIR analysis.

This work analyses the effect of two different pore additives focusing on polyethylene glycol (PEG) and lithium chloride (LiCl) at different concentrations on the immobilization of a deep eutectic solvent (DES) in a polyvinylidene fluoride-co-polytetrafluoroethylene (PVDF-co-PTFE) membrane. Two compounds were chosen to synthesized the DES; choline chloride as halide salt and ethylene glycol as a hydrogen bond donor.  The DES was impregnated onto the membrane pores by applying a vacuum-based technique. The membranes were prepared via phase inversion by means of immersion precipitation. For characterization purposes, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) was used to analyse the morphology of the supported- DES-membranes together with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry. The gravimetric method was applied to calculate the porosity, while the membrane performance for carbon dioxide (CO2) permeation and separation was assessed to determine the capability of the DES-impregnated membrane. The outcomes demonstrating that the highest loading of DES in the membrane support was obtained when 3 wt% PEG was added into the polymer solution with a porosity of 70.5%. The CO2 permeability and the CO2/N2 selectivity achieved using the synthesized membrane are 2.81 x 106 barrer and 3.46, respectively, when working with a transmembrane pressure of 1.1 bar and a temperature of 25ᵒC at 200 cm3 /min of gas flow rate. The results showed that additional of PEG as a pore additives able to load the highest DES in the membrane pore and resulted the best CO2 permeability and the CO2/N2 selectivity.