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Membrane Water Treatment Volume 6, Number 4, July 2015 , pages 309-321 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/mwt.2015.6.4.309 |
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Synthesis and characterization of polyamide thin-film nanocomposite membrane containing ZnO nanoparticles |
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A.S. AL-Hobaib, Jaber El Ghoul and Lassaad El Mir
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| Abstract | ||
| We report in this study the synthesis of mixed matrix reverse osmosis membranes by interfacial polymerization (IP) of thin film nanocomposite (TFNC) on porous polysulfone supports (PS). This paper investigates the synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) using the sol-gel processing technique and evaluates the performance of mixed matrix membranes reached by these aerogel NPs. Aqueous m-phenyl diamine (MPD) and organic trimesoyl chloride (TMC)-NPs mixture solutions were used in the IP process. The reaction of MPD and TMC at the interface of PS substrates resulted in the formation of the thin film composite (TFC). NPs of ZnO with a size of about 25 nm were used for the fabrication of the TFNC membranes. These membranes were characterized and evaluated in comparison with neat TFC ones. Their performances were evaluated based on the water permeability and salt rejection. Experimental results indicated that the NPs improved membrane performance under optimal concentration of NPs. By changing the content of the filler, better hydrophilicity was obtained; the contact angle was decreased from 74° to 32°. Also, the permeate water flux was increased from 26 to 49 L/m2.h when the content of NPs is 0.1 (wt.%) with the maintaining of lower salt passage of 1%. | ||
| Key Words | ||
| Nano-ZnO; interfacial polymerization; nanocomposite; nanofiltration; desalination | ||
| Address | ||
| (1) A.S. AL-Hobaib: Institute of Atomic Energy Research, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), 11442 P.O. Box 6086 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; (2) Jaber El Ghoul, Lassaad El Mir: Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), College of Sciences, Department of Physics, Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia; (3) Jaber El Ghoul, Lassaad El Mir: Laboratory of Physics of Materials and Nanomaterials Applied at Environment (LaPhyMNE), Gabes University, Faculty of Sciences of Gabes, 6072, Tunisia. | ||
