ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Application of novel nanofiltration membranes embedded with mesoporous carbon based nanoparticles for desalination and dye removal

A. Asadi, F. Gholami, A. A. Zinatizadeh, and H. Jaberi

Department of Gas and Petroleum, Yasouj University, Gachsaran, Iran

E-mail: a.asadi@yu.ac.ir

Received: 22 July 2021  Accepted: 18 October 2021

Abstract:

In this research, the application of mesoporous carbon CMK-3 and modified CMK-3 (M-CMK-3) to improve antifouling and rejection rate of polyethersulfone nanofiltration (NF) membrane was assessed. CMK-3 was modified with H-acid to increase hydrophilic characteristics of CMK-3. The synthesized CMK-3 and M-CMK-3 membranes revealed high values of pure water flux and flux recovery ratio (up to 95%) compared to bare NF membrane. Also, the performances of the membranes with optimum additive loading (0.1 wt%) of CMK-3 and M-CMK-3 in terms of rejecting different salts and dyes were compared. From the obtained results, the membrane embedded with M-CMK-3 showed higher rejection rate rather than bare NF membrane (up to 95% for Na₂SO₄ and 64% for CaCl₂). As a result, the flux permeability was increased from 6.44 kg/m² h for bare NF membrane to 20.11 kg/m² h for the membrane embedded with M-CMK-3 with optimum additive loading. A higher rejection data for different dyes under different pH conditions (up to 90%) were reported for the synthesized membrane embedded with M-CMK-3. After all, from the obtained data, M-CMK-3 with higher negative surface charge presented a higher performance to remove salts and dyes rather than CMK-3. Therefore, M-CMK-3 could be a proper proposed additive to develop cost-effective NF membranes with high antifouling properties and super high filtration capacity for removing dyes and salts from wastewaters.

Keywords: CMK-3 mesoporous; Dye and salt rejection; H-acid; Nanofiltration membrane

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01944-w

Chemical Papers 76 (3) 1349–1363 (2022)