Fabrication of Polyethersulfone Membranes Using Nanocarbon as Additive

Abstract

Membrane-based processes have become the most dominant technology for water or wastewater treatment. To maintain optimum performance, a membrane should have high permeability and selectivity, good hydrophilicity, in combination with stable mechanical properties. Generally, the membrane produced from pure polyethersulfone (PES) has good mechanical properties, but low hydrophilicity. Modifications of the PES membrane with hydrophilic additives can increase its hydrophilicity. Nevertheless, incorporating additives may decrease its mechanical properties. The objective of this study is to enhance the overall properties of PES membrane by incorporating nanocarbon as an additive. The goal is to obtain a membrane with high permeability and selectivity, good hydrophilicity, as well as superior mechanical properties. Four PES membranes were equipped via the dry-wet inversion method using two solvents (n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)). The nanocarbon additive was fabricated from palm fruit-shell biomass wastes. The results show that the type of solvent affects the pore structure of the membrane surface. The membranes prepared using the PES-NMP system have dense structures with small nodules that appear in the upper skin layer, while the membranes from the PES-DMSO system have a spherulite-like structure. The membrane structures changed significantly when the nanocarbon particles were added to the polymer solution, particularly in terms of the shape and size of the microvoids. The finger-like structure found in the membranes prepared from PES-NMP or PES-DMSO systems disappears after the nanocarbon was added to the system. Furthermore, the accretion of nanocarbon to the polymer system increases the water permeability, hydrophilicity, and mechanical properties of the resulted membrane.

Preparation, characterization, and desalination study of polystyrene membrane integrated with zeolite using the electrospinning method

“…A high-performance membrane is often produced by embedding a filler that has a nanoscale [2]. This helps to enhance its functional properties in separating and purifying water [3,4,5,6].…”

L-Histidine immobilized montmorillonite for As(III) adsorption and statistical verification of data by PDF, AICcorrected and AADR models

“…The number of methods available for removal of As(III) from water and waste water solutions which include reverse osmosis, chemical coagulation, chemical precipitation, electrochemical methods, membrane filtration, ion exchange process (Arahman et al 2018, Khan, Sherazi et al 2018, Sherazi et al 2022). Among all the above described techniques, adsorption is more efficient and ideal technique for removal of As(III) from aqueous solution.…”

One-Pot Polymerization of Dopamine as an Additive to Enhance Permeability and Antifouling Properties of Polyethersulfone Membrane

“…To deal with this problem, pursuit on the effective methods to reduce and control membrane fouling have been done through various endeavors [ 8 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Though the mechanism and behavior of fouling are complex, it has been widely reported that increasing the hydrophilicity of the membrane can be one of the viable solutions to limit the rate of foulant adsorption and thereby reducing the membrane fouling severity [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. The enhancement of the hydrophilicity can be done by introducing a hydrophilic additive into the membrane materials through various techniques, such as blending [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], coating [ 25 , 26 ], grafting [ 27 ] and so forth.…”