In this investigation, a nanofibrous sulfonated poly(ethylene terephthalate) (SPET) membrane was prepared by electrospinning of the SPET solution in trifluoroaceticacid (TFA)/dichloromethane (DCM) mixture. The produced nanofibers had diameter ranging from 300 nm to 1 lm. The performance of this membrane's separation process was evaluated under different operating conditions. The influence of the electrospinning and filtration process parameters, such as concentration, applied voltage, deposition time, operating pressure, and filtration time on rejection of C.I. Basic Blue 3 were studied. The dead-end recirculation ultrafiltration set-up was employed. Under optimum conditions (concentration of 20% (w/v) of SPET, applied voltage of 20 kV and deposition time of 3 h) the removal of the aforementioned dye was 98%. Operating pressure has posed a significant influence on the membrane's separation performance, whereas the operating time had some effect on the separation performance. Two equilibrium adsorption isotherms: Langmuir and Freundlich were fitted to the dyes' equilibrium sorption data on SPET membrane at different feed concentrations. The Freundlich isotherm was found to well represent the measured adsorption data based on the higher coefficient of determination (r 2 ). V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 124: E190-E198, 2012

In this study, the effect of dimethyl 5-sodium sulfoisophthalate (SSI) nanoparticles (NPs) on the antifouling properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) was investigated through the ultrafiltration of C. I. Basic Blue 3. 3 dye. To reveal the tortuous effect of this additive on the antifouling properties, scanning electron microscopy was used for the characterization of the ENM structure and the optimization of the SSI NP content. Then, some selected physical and structural properties of the membrane, such as the porosity, moisture regain, contact angle, hydraulic permeability (L p ), and mechanical properties, in the optimized range of SSI NP contents were investigated. Finally, the influence of this additive on the rejection and flux recovery ratio of the prepared membranes was considered. Consequently, the antifouling properties were assessed with consideration of all of the aforementioned parameters. The SSI/PET2 membrane (that with 0.02% w/w SSI NPs with respect to the total amount of PET polymer and SSI NPs), with an average nanofiber diameter of 450 nm, a porosity of 78.44%, a moisture regain of 9.34%, a contact angle of 86.488, an L p of 42,167 L h 21 m 22 bar 21 , a tensile strength of 4.66 6 0.04 MPa, a flux recovery ratio of 15.3%, and a final rejection of 95%, showed a significant enhancement in the antifouling properties compared with pristine PET ENMs.

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