Incorporation of Biomass-Based Carbon Nanoparticles into Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes for Enhanced Separation and Anti-Fouling Performance

Abstract

Functionalized carbon nanomaterials are considered to be an efficient modifier for ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced performance. However, most of the reported carbon nanomaterials are derived from unsustainable fossil fuels, while an extra modification is often essential before incorporating the nanomaterials in membranes, thus inevitably increasing the cost and complexity. In this work, novel functionalized biomass-based carbon nanoparticles were prepared successfully from agricultural wastes of corn stalks through simple one-step acid oxidation method. The obtained particles with the size of ~45 nm have excellent dispersibility in both aqueous and dimethyl formamide solutions with abundant oxygen-containing groups and negative potentials, which can endow the polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced surface hydrophilicity, larger pore size, more finger-like pores, and lower surface roughness. Therefore, the separation and anti-fouling performance of membranes are improved simultaneously. Meanwhile, the addition of 0.4 wt% nanoparticles was proved to be the best condition for membrane preparation as excess modifiers may lead to particle aggregation and performance recession. It is expected that these biomass-based carbon nanoparticles are potential modifying materials for improving the separation performance and anti-fouling property of the membranes with great simplicity and renewability, which pave a new avenue for membrane modification and agricultural waste utilization.

All-Fiber-Based Superhydrophobic Wearable Self-Powered Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Biomechanical and Droplet Energy Harvesting

“…The receiving material is a conductive aluminum foil covered with a PVDF nanofiber film and CC@PDA electrodes. After waiting for the end of electrostatic spinning, the nanofibers were dried in an oven at 60 °C for 5 h. Finally, an all-fiber-based friction nanogenerator (F-TENG) with built-in electrodes was obtained. − CC@PDA should be accurately placed on the first layer of the PVDF nanofiber membrane and attached thereto based on bonding energy. Also, the CC@PDA should be kept at least 1 mm away from the edge of the nanofiber membrane, and the CC@PDA electrode layer should be properly wrapped between the two layers of the nanofiber membrane after the successful assembly of the F-TENG.…”

Functionalized Hemodialysis Polysulfone Membranes with Improved Hemocompatibility

“…Mahat et al [ 101 ] reported polysulfone functionalization with carbon quantum dots in order to improve the hydrophilicity of pristine PSF and antimicrobial properties. Zheng et al [ 103 ] proposed an increase of antifouling properties of polysulfone via carbon nanoparticles obtained from agricultural waste of corn stalks. The modified membranes improved hydrophilicity by increasing the pore size and modified roughness leading to improved membrane permeability and antifouling properties.…”