Functionalization of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and its effects on polysulfone-ZnO membranes

Abstract

Incorporation of nanoparticles in membranes has recently been reported to lead to enhancement of the membrane performance for various applications. In this study, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized via sol-gel method using zinc acetate and oxalic acid as starting materials. However, the influence of additive, in this case ethylene glycol (EG), on the size of ZnO nanoparticles produced was investigated. All diffraction peaks of XRD patterns indicated the wurtzite structure and the hexagonal phase of ZnO nanoparticles. Uniform spherical particle sizes with lower sizes and reduced agglomeration were observed when EG was used under the same experimental conditions. The particle size was found in the range of 20-30 nm when EG was used as compared to those without EG, which was between 50-60 nm. Dispersion property of the ZnO NPs was further verified by zetasizer analysis. Subsequent incorporation of the smaller size ZnO nanoparticles in membranes has shown improvement in the characteristics and performance of the membranes. Membranes incorporated with ZnO showed improved hydrophilicity and enhancement of membrane performance in terms of permeability, porosity, and rejection ability.

Remarkably high performance of clew-like ZnO superstructure in reactive adsorption desulfurization

“…03-065-6920), which is in accordance with that reported by Babich [28]. For fresh adsorbents, with increasing the crystallization time, the intensity of ZnO peaks increases, and the crystallite size (shown in Table S1 (Supplementary information)) calculated by DebyeScherrer equation [46], increases from 29 to 57 nm, which is attributed to the growth of ZCH crystals under hydrothermal synthesis conditions, consistent with the SEM results shown in Fig. 3.…”

Development of polysulfone-nanohybrid membranes using ZnO-GO composite for enhanced antifouling and antibacterial control

“…The slight decrement of porosity for Z3 membrane might be caused by the pores blockage due to the high concentration of ZnO NPs [27]. The enhancement of porosity for nanohybrid membranes were attributed to the less viscous blending solution with hydrophilic ZnO and ZnO-GO which directly led to faster occurrence of phase inversion process [38]. In addition, the membranes average pore size was estimated to enlarge from 2 nm to 4 nm.…”

“…The improved hydrophilicity originated from the high polarity ZnO NPs and the abundance of hydroxyl, carbonyl and epoxy functional groups on the GO nanosheets [41] which could reduce the adsorption of humic acid molecules onto membranes surface [42]. The establishment of highly hydrophilic membrane structure with ZnO and ZnO-GO composites was aimed to increase the affinity of these NPs to water rather than the organic matter, resulting in lower hydraulic resistance [38]. Hence, there would be higher retention of foulants by utilizing the membranes embedded with highly hydrophilic ZnO-GO NPs.…”

Генерация Синглетного Кислорода В Микрокапиллярных Оптических Элементах С Фотоактивными Покрытиями

“…Химические активные соединения кислорода (reactive oxygen species, ROS) играют важную роль в фотокаталитических процессах и антибактериальной активности материалов [2,[6][7][8][15][16][17][18][19], и разрабатываются устройства, обеспечивающие формирование этих соединений кислорода в газовых потоках [20,21]. Высокоэффективные мембраны, содержащие наночастицы, разрабатываются для систем очистки воды [22,23]. Использование трубчатых капиллярных мембран из прозрачного кварцевого стекла может обеспечить 1) высокую прозрачность такого элемента для эффективной генерации ROS под действием света, 2) большую площадь контакта газового потока со стенками каналов, покрытых фотоактивным покрытием.…”