Decoration of carbon nanotubes in the substrate or selective layer of polyvinyl alcohol/polysulfone thin-film composite membrane for nanofiltration applications
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Herein, we fabricated three types of thin-film composite (TFC), thin-film composite with nanocomposite substrate (nTFC), and thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for nanofiltration (NF) applications. Polysulfone (PSf) substrates with different concentrations (16-20 wt.%) were fabricated using the phase inversion technique. The polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) selective layer cross-linked with glutaraldehyde on the PSf substrate was created via a dip-coating process. The membranes' NF performance was assessed by filtration of NaCl and Na2SO4 solutions at relatively low pressure of 0.3 MPa. The pure water fluxes of 61 and 64 L/m2 h were achieved for nTFC (PVA layer on CNTs embedded PSf substrate) and TFN (CNTs decorated PVA layer on PSf substrate) membranes containing 0.05 wt.% of CNTs, respectively, which was higher than that of TFC as a control membrane (29 L/m2 h). Furthermore, the highest flux recovery ratios of 93.2% and 91.8% were obtained for nTFC and TFN membranes containing 0.05 wt.% of CNTs, respectively. The salt rejection of all prepared membranes followed the sequence of Na2SO4 > NaCl, indicating the characteristics of negatively charged membranes. Employing CNTs in the PVA/PSf TFC membranes without considering their location simultaneously improves the membranes' flux and salt rejection, getting over the trade-off between permeability and selectivity.
Source: Results in Chemistry
Language: English
Subfield: Water Science and Technology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,490
OpenAlex ID: W4404554388