A novel Polyethersulfone/Chamomile (PES/Chm) mixed matrix membranes for wastewater treatment applications
Rana I. Raja, Khalid T. Rashid, Manal Afham Toma, Adnan A. AbdulRazak, Mohammed Ahmed Shehab, Klára Hernádi
Abstract
In order to address the limitation of low flux in ultrafiltration (UF), a suitable additive is introduced into the base polymer to modify the membrane morphology, thereby enhancing flux rates. In this study, chamomile leaf nanoparticles (Chm NPs) were investigated as a novel green material for utilizing in UF membrane synthesizes. To enhance comprehension of the influence of Chm on the synthesis of PES UF membranes, a series of membranes were fabricated by including different quantities of Chm into the casting solution; (0, 0.5, 1.5, and 2 wt. %.). The synthesized membranes were fully characterized, through the porosity, pore size, hydrophilicity, membrane morphology, and UF efficiency. Manufactured PES/Chm membranes demonstrated significantly increased permeate water flux (PWF) (up to 498 kg/m2 h), which was four times that of the pristine PES membrane (116 kg/m2 h), besides that the bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Congo red dye (CR) rejection of PES/Chm membranes was still kept high. The enhanced PWF was mostly due to the more porous membrane structure and increased hydrophilicity. Meanwhile, the higher surface hydrophilicity of the PES/Chm membranes resulted in greater antifouling performance and the high flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 93%. Based on the results of this research, the Chm may be used as a novel green additive with substantial application potential in the fabrication of UF membranes wastewater treatment.