High-performance thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes with hydrophilic PDA@TiO2 nanocomposite substrate for the treatment of oily wastewater under PRO mode

Kallem, P and Pandey, RP and Hegab, HM and Gaur, R and Hasan, SW and Banat, F (2022) High-performance thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes with hydrophilic PDA@TiO2 nanocomposite substrate for the treatment of oily wastewater under PRO mode. In: Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 10 (3).

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Abstract

The applications of thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes are limited by low flux and strong internal concentration polarization (ICP). In this study, a simple, facile, and eco-friendly approach to improve the wettability of the FO membrane substrate using hydroxyl- and amino-functionalized TiO2 nanocomposites by polydopamine (PDA) coating on TiO2 particles is demonstrated. In our research, a composite membrane substrate was fabricated by incorporating PDA@TiO2 into polyethersulfone (PES) through the non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) process. Then, a selective active polyamide layer was formed by interfacial polymerization on top of the PES-PDA@TiO2 membrane substrate to obtain the resulting TFC-FO membrane. The composite membrane substrate exhibited higher hydrophilicity (about 25 lower contact angle) and higher porosity than the pristine membrane substrate. The water flux (Jw) of 34.3 L/m2h and 60.1 L/m2h was achieved for the resulting TFC-PDA@TiO2 FO membrane under FO and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) modes which was ~174 and ~183 higher than that of the pristine TFC-FO membrane under FO and PRO modes respectively. Furthermore, the TFC-PDA@TiO2 membrane exhibited enhanced selectivity, as expressed by the decrease in the specific salt flux (Js/JW) values (from 0.48 g/L and 0.53 g/L of pristine TFC to 0.27 g/L and 0.28 g/L for TFC-PDA@TiO2 under the FO and PRO modes respectively). More importantly, the TFC-PDA@TiO2 membrane exhibited better fouling behavior with the organic foulant solution. These results demonstrate that the fabricated TFC-FO membranes have significant potential for sustainable water reclamation from oily wastewater via FO under the PRO mode. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
Publisher:	Elsevier Ltd
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to the Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords:	Composite membranes; Contact angle; Environmental protection; Hydrophilicity; Nanocomposite films; Nanocomposites; Osmosis membranes; Phase separation; Thin films; Wastewater reclamation; Wastewater treatment; Water conservation, Anti-foulings; Eco-friendly; Eco-friendly approach; Forward osmosis; Forward osmosis membranes; Functionalized; Functionalized TiO2; High flux; Oily wastewater; Thin film composites, Titanium dioxide
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2022 05:27
Last Modified:	22 Jun 2022 05:27
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/73614

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