BACKGROUND: In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) hollow fiber membranes incorporated with surface-functionalized iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles were developed in order to improve water flux and antifouling properties of PES membrane. Commercial Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles was coated by polydopamine (PDA), followed by functionalization using (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) and sulfonic acid to produce Fe 3 O 4 /PDA-Amine and Fe 3 O 4 /PDA-Sulf nanoparticles, respectively. All the nanoparticles-modified membranes were synthesized using dope solution composed of different nanoparticles, followed by a series of instrumental characterization and filtration assessments. RESULTS: It is found that the membrane incorporated with Fe 3 O 4 /PDA-Amine exhibited the best filtration performance, achieving water flux of 137.23 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection of 92.16%. As a comparison, the pristine PES membrane only showed 82.60 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and 71.92%, respectively. The membrane with Fe 3 O 4 /PDA-Sulf also showed lower performance, recording 129.88 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and 88.39%, respectively. The improved performance of the Fe 3 O 4 / PDA-Amine-modified PES membrane could be attributed to its lowest water contact angle (65.10°), highest porosity (68.14%), ideal pore size (65 nm) as well as good structural integrity. More importantly, the improved surface properties also led to outstanding fouling resistance, achieving flux recovery rate of 97%. This membrane also achieved excellent chemical oxygen demand (95.17%) and color (89.86%) reduction when tested using river water sample. CONCLUSION: Our work demonstrated a simple approach to functionalize the surface of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and showed the effectiveness of the surface-functionalized Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles in improving not only the surface properties of PES membrane but also its filtration performance in terms of permeability, rejection and antifouling property.
Factors such as particle type and its loading have been previously studied in tailoring the efficiency of particles-modified polymeric membranes for water treatment. However, the role of particle sizes in membrane modification is often overlooked.
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