This paper reports the fabrication of polyethersulfone membranes via in situ hydrogen peroxide-assisted polymerization of dopamine. The dopamine and hydrogen peroxide were introduced into the dope solution where the polymerization occurred, resulting in a single-step additive formation during membrane fabrication. The effectivity of modification was evaluated through characterizations of the resulting membranes in terms of chemical functional groups, surface morphology, porosity, contact angle, mechanical strength and filtration of humic acid solution. The results confirm that the polydopamine was formed during the dope solution mixing through peroxide-assisted polymerization as proven by the appearance of peaks associated OH and NH groups in the resulting membranes. The presence of polydopamine residual in the membrane matric enhances the pore properties in terms of size and porosity (by a factor of 10), and by lowering the hydrophilicity (from 69° to 53°) which leads to enhanced filtration flux of up to 217 L/m2 h. The presence of the residual polydopamine also enhances membrane surface hydrophilicity which improve the antifouling properties as shown from the flux recovery ratio of > 80%.

This works focuses on the fouling resistance evaluation of polydopamine-blended poly (ether sulfone) (PES) ultrafiltration membrane for water treatment application. The supporting PES membrane was prepared via a common phase inversion method. The dopamine was introduced to the membrane by blending technique and the modification occurred by in-situ polymerization of dopamine into polydopamine which triggered by peroxide. The antifouling performances were studied in terms of flux recovery, reversible fouling, irreversible fouling, and total fouling. The relevant characteristics of the membranes such as surface porosity, chemical composition, water permeation, and solute rejection were also provided to support the analysis of antifouling performances. The results revealed that the presence of polydopamine in the membrane system significantly enhanced the fouling resistance of the polydopamine-blended PES membrane. The hydrophilic component in polydopamine reduced the interaction of membrane with foulant thus lowered the total fouling of only 18.92% with 13.50% reversible fouling and 5.42% irreversible fouling for modified membrane. In addition, the polydopamine-modified membrane successfully recovered up to 95% of the flux after backwashing, much higher than that of original PES which was only 67%.

Manganese (Mn) is one of the most abundant metal in the soil. The presence of this metal is essentially needed by living things for the formation of cartilage and bone as well as driving various enzymes. However, in excessive amounts, the metal can cause disruption of the central nervous system. In this study, the removal of Mn was carried out by the adsorption process using zeolite adsorbent. Effects of contact time, pH of sample (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) and dosage of adsorbent (1; 1,5; 2; 2,5; 3; 3,5; 4; 4,5 and 5 g) were evaluated. The optimal conditions were obtained under operating conditions of 100 minutes contact time, 7 and 9 pH of the sample, and 5 g dosage of adsorbent. The adsorption process was able to reduce Mn metal up to 79.52%. The initial concentration of Mn sample was 5 g/L and the concentration of effluent after the adsorption process reduced to 1,024 g/L. The adsorption process resulted in a significant reduction of Mn level. However, the final result of the process shows the level of Mn that still exceeds the limit permitted by KEPMENKES No. 907/MENKES/SK/VII/2002 of 0.1 mg/L.

Herein we reported the UV resistance evaluation of PVDF membrane which modified through a new blending combined polymerization method. The membrane was prepared by means of non-solvent induced phase separation process in which dopamine was blended altogether with polyvinylidene fluoride polymer in a dimethylacetamide solvent. The blended membrane was further modified by immersion into tris-HCl system to trigger the self-polymerization of dopamine into polydopamine. The UV stability performance was studied by exposing the membrane to the UV light for 5 days. The morphological change of the membrane was observed by using scanning electron microscopy analysis. The results revealed that, with only blending the dopamine into the membrane system, the membrane was severely damaged after UV exposure. However, by simply immersing the blended membrane into buffer Tris-HCl solution, the membrane showed minimal morphological damage after similar UV exposure treatment. This membrane can be a promising choice for the photocatalytic membrane reactor application.

The combination of Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy and multivariate analysis using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was developed to detect the presence of borax in meatballs. The conventional analysis used to detect the presence of borax has been considered inefficient because it is only able to qualify for the presence of borax, but cannot determine the dose of borax used. This study aimed to identify the presence of borax in meatballs using NIR Spectroscopy in the 1000-2500 nm range and maximize PCA performance by combining MSC and SNV pre-treatment with Savitzky Golay second derivative. The results showed that the identification of borax can occur at a wavelength of 1800 - 2500 nm, which is indicated by vibrations at a wavelength of 1865 nm with the atomic structure of C-Cl and the combination of pre-treatment of the second derivative of Savitzky Golay also successful for grouping the data to be better.