Preparation and Characterization of Antibacterial Cellulose/Chitosan Nanofiltration Membranes

Abstract

Presently, most nanofiltration membranes are prepared with non-biodegradable petrochemical materials. This process is harmful to the ecosystem and consumes a large amount of non-renewable energy. In this study, biodegradable and biocompatible antibacterial cellulose/chitosan nanofiltration membranes (BC/CS-NFMs) were fabricated and characterized for their mechanical strength, antimicrobial activity, salt and dye filtration performance, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) retention using Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The BC/CS-NFMs were obtained by the hydrolysis and carboxymethylation of dense cellulose/chitosan membranes (BC/CSMs). The tensile strength of the BC/CS-NFMs decreased as the chitosan content increased. In addition, the thermal stability and antibacterial ability of the BC/CS-NFMs improved. The pore size is less than 1 nm, and a spongy, layered structure is observed in the cross-sectional FE-SEM images. FT-IR analysis shows that a part of the hydroxyl in cellulose transforms to carboxymethyl during the hydrolysis and carboxymethylation of the BC/CSMs. No obvious changes can be observed in the cellulose and chitosan after the blend membrane formation from the XRD measurements. Based on the experimental results on the permeation and rejection of BC/CS-NFMs, different proportions of cellulose and chitosan nanofiltration membranes almost did not affect the water flux and rejection rate. The BC/CS-NFMs showed better water flux and a higher rejection rate in aqueous dye-salt solutions.

Chitosan‐based nanocomposite membranes with improved properties: Effect of cellulose acetate blending and TiO2 nanoparticles incorporation

“…Similar reports were published for CS/TiO 2 nanocomposite as CS/TiO 2 hybrid film and CS/TiO 2 nanocomposite films for food packaging . These results confirmed the presence of CA and TiO 2 in the CS matrix of the prepared membrane samples and their good miscibility thanks to molecular interaction and hydrogen binding . The residual weight (ash content) of the CS and CS/CA membranes were 7.11% and 14.4%, respectively which could be attributed to the carbon residuals.…”

“…Additionally, the mentioned doublet peaks in the DTGA curves exhibited that blending with CA results in exhibition of two maximum degradation rates within the temperature range of 220°C–370°C for CS/CA (at 297°C and 327°C) and CS/CA/TiO 2 (at 300°C and 334°C) membrane samples, regarding decomposition of COO – from the polysaccharides and CS and CA polymeric chains . The same results were reported by Weng et al , for cellulose/CS nanofiltration membranes with a temperature of the maximum degradation rate at 293.3°C and 347.9°C due to CS and CA decomposition, respectively. The results of TGA and DTGA curves are also represented in Table .…”

“…The second weight loss area, for the neat CS, started at 273°C and reached a maximum at 350°C with a weight loss of 71.4% which corresponded to glucosamine chains decomposition, vaporization, and elimination of volatile products . The second weight loss occurred within the temperature range of 250°C to 350°C which is the region of major weight loss for the CS/CA, CS/TiO 2 , and CS/CA/TiO 2 membrane samples, related to the thermal and oxidative decomposition of the polymeric (CS and CA) membrane matrices . Therefore, the related rapid weight loss of about 63.6%, 69.4%, and 62.7% were obtained for the mentioned samples, respectively.…”

Sewage Polluted Water Treatment via Chitosan: A Review

“…Carboxymethyl CS membranes, for example, were applied during a 6-week protein separation process within which no fouling or deterioration in the membrane flux was recorded [87]. Weng et al approved the antimicrobial activity of a cellulose/CS membrane against Escherichia coli in disc diffusion experiments [88]. Studies concerning CS-coated polyacrylonitrile hollow fiber membranes approved the antimicrobial and antibiofouling effect in respect to Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria [89,90].…”

Self-Healing Cellulose Nanocrystals-Containing Gels via Reshuffling of Thiuram Disulfide Bonds

“…Cellulose is an abundant green resource in nature. Owing to the high intensity of hydroxyl groups along the skeleton of cellulose, cellulose is allowed to generate functional materials via physical and chemical modification [32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47]. In particular, the cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have attracted a tremendous amount of interest owing to its fascinating physicochemical properties such as adaptable surface chemistry and high mechanical strength.…”