Preparation of composite thin PES-TMC/PVP membranes:
Composite thin film membranes of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT were prepared on the front side of porous support PES membrane through interfacial polymerization. The film thickness was controlled by limiting the reaction time between PES and TMC/PVP-MMT and the `membrane performance was studied as a function of film thickness. The thin film has an important role in the structural properties and morphology of the membrane interface and consequently the membrane performance [32].
The reaction time, PVP concentration and MMT content, were optimized with respect to the membrane performance. The effect of reaction time and PVP concentration on the membrane performance are given in Table 1.
Table 1
Membrane performance depending on the reaction time and PVP concentrations
Membrane
|
Preparation conditions
|
Membrane performance
|
Reaction time (min)
|
PVP content %
|
PWP (L/m2.h.bar)
|
C.V. rejection %
|
PES-NF01
|
2
|
0.5
|
17.6 ± 0.2
|
68.9 ± 0.7
|
PES-NF02
|
4
|
0.5
|
15.8 ± 0.3
|
74.7 ± 0.6
|
PES-NF03
|
6
|
0.5
|
13.9 ± 0.2
|
79.5 ± 0.5
|
PES-NF04
|
4
|
0.25
|
16.8 ± 0.3
|
71.9 ± 0.6
|
PES-NF05
|
4
|
0.5
|
15.8 ± 0.4
|
74.9 ± 0.8
|
PES-NF06
|
4
|
1
|
13.5 ± 0.3
|
79.01 ± 0.8
|
The results in Table 1 obviously demonstrate that both the reaction time and PVP concentration have a clear effect on the membranes performance. It is obvious that increasing reaction time decreases the PWP as a result of increasing thin film thickness and reaction time of 6 min was considered where, PWP of 13.9 L/m2.h.bar was obtained. The C.V. rejection was found to be clearly improved from 68.9% at reaction time of 2 min to be 79.5% at reaction time 6 min, which refer to the increased thickness of the interface, polymerized composite thin film. The effect of MMT content in the composite thin film on the membrane performance was studied at fixed reaction time of 6 min and fixed PVP concentration of 0.5%, and the results are given in Table 2.
Table 2
Effect of MMT content in the composite thin-film of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT on membranes performance
Membrane
|
Preparation conditions
|
Membrane performance
|
Reaction time (min)
|
PVP content %
|
MMT %
|
PWP (L/m2.h.bar)
|
C.V. rejection %
|
PES-NF1
|
6
|
0.5
|
0.04
|
14.6
|
83.3
|
PES-NF2
|
6
|
0.5
|
0.06
|
16.2
|
82.2
|
PES-NF3
|
6
|
0.5
|
0.08
|
17.3
|
81.7
|
PES-NF4
|
6
|
0.5
|
0.10
|
18.1
|
80.01
|
PES-NF5
|
6
|
0.5
|
0.12
|
16.6
|
80.4
|
The results given in Table 2 demonstrate a clear improvement of membranes performance with increasing the MMT nanoparticles content up to 0.10 wt.%, where the PWP increased with increasing the MMT within 0.04–0.10 wt.%. Furthermore, the CV rejection appeared improved with the presence of MMT while a slight decrease in the rejection percentage with increasing MMT concentration up to 0.12 wt. %. The presence MMT showed sharp increase in pure water flux of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT in comparison to PES-TMC/PVP at the same reaction time and PVP concentration. These results could be explained depending on the properties of MMT, where the surface hydrophilic properties of the interfacial layer increase with MMT and consequently enhance the water permeation through the thin-film [33–35]. The results given in Table 2 clearly illustrate the significant effect of the interfacial thin film content on the membrane performance (water flux and salt rejection). It could be deduced that the improved structural and morphological properties affect the hydraulic resistance and so affect the water permeation.
The effect of MMT content on the permeation flux was presented in Fig. 1, reflecting important role of MMT on the pure water permeability.
The membrane surface hyrophilcity was measured through determining the pure water contact angel against the MMT content in the composite thin film and the results are given in Fig. 2. The obtained results showed that the water contact angel decreases with increasing the MMT content (wt.%) which could be due to the increased hydrophilicity of the surface layer with incorporation of hydrophilic MMT nanoparticles. Notably, the water contact angel of PES-TMC/PVP membrane with zero content of MMT was found to be 83o, where the water contact angel for PES-TMC/PVP-MMT with 0.12 wt % decreased to be 62o.
Structural and morphological properties of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT composite thin film membranes:
The structural changes of the modified membranes were appeared in the FTIR spectrum of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT compared to the virgin PES membrane (Fig. 3). The characteristic peaks for the virgin PES appeared in Fig. 3a, where the peak appeared at 3096 and 3065 cm− 1 assigned for the stretching vibration of aromatic –CH. The peaks appeared at 1580 and 1485 cm− 1 assigned for the aromatic ring C = C stretching vibration. The aromatic ether band appeared around 1235 cm− 1 and the sulfone group appeared at 837, 1110, and 1145 cm− 1.
The PES-TMC/PVP-MMT spectra showed a sharp peak with high intensity at 1647 cm− 1 which could assigned for the stretching vibration of amidic C = O and the shoulder appeared at 1722 cm− 1 could be ascribed for the –C = O stretching of the carboxylic acid resulted from the hydrolysis of the acyl chloride (-COCl). The peaks at 2848 and 2928 cm− 1 could be ascribed for the stretching vibration of C-H from the methylene (-CH2) of PVP. The characteristic peaks for MMT appeared in the spectra of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT at 3448 cm− 1 for the adsorbed humidity and the peak at 1640 cm− 1 assigned for the bending –OH of the clay surface water. The peaks at 1100 and 1050 cm− 1 are assigned for the stretching vibration of Si-O and were found overlapped. These observations confirm the presence of interfacial polymerization of the composite thin film of TMC/PVP-MMT on the surface of PES and the formation of the amidic linkages of (-CONH-) on the active surface layer.
The surface morphological features of the produced composite thin film membranes were studied using SEM and AFM. The SEM images of PES and PES-TMC/PVP-MMT are presented in Fig. 4(a-f). The images show that the interfacial polymerization of TMC/PVP-MMT onto the PES surface produces highly dense and smooth surface and declared the formation of surface active layer of TMC/PVP-MMT onto the porous surface of PES. The SEM images of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT demonstrate the formation of thin film with considerable thickness, and no particles agglomeration. The presence of MMT showed no clear folds or wrinkles, where PVP could coat the surface composite thin film. The SEM images refer to the fast growth of the surface thin film, which indicate that the polymerization may occurred not only on the PES surface but also within the MMT layer which cause more layer thickness and decrease the MMT interlayer distance. However, the improved surface properties due to the presence of MMT content appeared up to 0.1 wt% and the effect diminishes at higher MMT content of 0.12 wt%. The presence of MMT with low content in the thin film composite may increase the thermodynamic incombatibilty between polymer and solvent due its hydrophilic nature, which could affect the surafce morphological properties [36]. The hydrophilic properties of MMT particles may also affect the entrance of water into the membrane body and facilitate the water-solvent exchange and so decrease the formation of sponge like structure, while instead larger finger like macro-voids could be formed [37].
Furthermore, the variation of pure water permeability relative to the variation was of pure water contact angel depending on MMT content refer to the potential surface structural and morphological changes due to the interfacial polymerization of the composite thin film [38–40].
The AFM images of the prepared membranes are given in Fig. 4(g-j) depecting further information about the membrane surface morphology. The images clearly depict that the surface of the composite surafce layer appeared smoother after the formation of thin film composite. The surafce roughness was determined as the root mean square roughness (RMS) to indicate the surface roughness of the prepared composite membranes and was found to be 51.16 nm for PES and 48.28 nm for surface modified membarne PES-TMC/PVP-MMT.
These results refer to a smooth surface layer produced through interfacial polymerization, which may due to the limited depth of the reaction and the formation of barrier layer. The smooth surface represent an advantage for the membrane fouling resistance [36].
The surface charge is an important parameter depending on the membrane content which could affect the membrane performance. The prepared composite membrane surface charges was studed by measuring the potential at different pH (3.5–10) and the results were given in Fig. 5. Obiviously, the prepared membranes with interfacially formed surface composite thin film showed amphoteric surafce with point of zero charge at pH 7-7.5. The results showed that the membranes are positivly charged at pH below 7 and are negatively charged at pH higher than 7.5 and the isoelecrtic points were found shifted towards higher pH with increasing the MMT content.
The salt rejection behavior of the PES-TMC/PVP-MMT with varied MMT content ratio was studied through permeation experiments for salt solutions containing MgCl2 and Na2SO4. The results presented in Fig. 6 showed that the rejection for Na2SO4 was found to be greatly higher than that for MgCl2. The rejection of electrolyt solution is related to membrane pore size and the electrostatic interaction between the membrane and the diffusion coefficient of the salts[20, 41]. The observed high rejection for Na2SO4 than MgCl2 could be explained due to membrane surface charge and the effect of diffusion coefficient of studied salts as well. Where, the diffusion coefficient in the membrane can be considered to be approximately as in aqueous solutions. The diffusion of Na2SO4 is slightly lower than that for MgCl2 which contribute in the higher rejection of Na2SO4.
Crystal violet dye removal characteristics of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membrane:
The rejection behavior of CV dye from aqueous solution was studied using the prepared composite thin film membranes PES-TMC/PVP-MMT containing different MMT content ratio (PES-NF3, PES-NF4, PES-NF5). The permeation of CV dye solution (100 mg/l) was studied at pH 7 and 0.276 MPa. The dye solution permeate flux was studied at different permeation time and the results are given in Fig. 7.
Table 3
Steady-state CV removal and permeate fluxes of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membranes.
Membrane
|
Steady state flux (l/m2.h)
|
Steady state CV removal (%)
|
PES-NF3
|
58
|
95.3
|
PES-NF4
|
54
|
97.8
|
PES-NF5
|
52
|
99.6
|
The results in Fig. 7 showed that the PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membranes effectively remove the CV dye especially NF5 and the dye solution flux decreased clearly with increasing the MMT content in the interfacial polymerized thin film and reached steady state. It was reported that both the electrostatic interaction and steric hindrance highly affect both the rejection and permeation of CV dye via PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membrane [42, 43]. The results showed slow rate of flux decrease, which reflect the potential antifouling behavior of the composite thin film based membrane towards the CV aqueous solution and the possible high rejection of higher molecular weight organic dyes. This finding could be explained to be due to the surface smoothness of the surface thin film and the electrostatic interaction under these experimental conditions and the dye predominate species under the experiment pH.
Antifouling behavior of PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membrane:
The antifouling behavior of the fabricated PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membrane was evaluated in permeation process of aqueous solution of 100 mg/l SA at pH 7.0 and temperature of 25 oC. Where, PES-NF4 and PES-NF5 membranes were applied for fouling experiments and the fouling agents have larger molecular size compared with nanofiltration membrane pore size. Consequently, the fouling molecules couldn’t pass through the membrane pores during the solution permeation and causes fouling for the membrane surface. The surface fouling process was performed at permeation flux of 70.01 l/m2h to verify the required permeation driving hydrodynamic force on the fouling process. The normalized flux (Jt/Jo) of the studied membranes NF4 and NF5 to SA solutions are presented Fig. 8.
The results in Fig. 8 showed that the membranes fluxes for SA solutions decreased sharply followed by slow decrease with time. These reults could be due the deposition of the fouling agent molecules on the surface of membranes till reaching the steady state between 15–25 h. The steady state flux for PES-NF5 membrane decreased with ratio of 5% for SA aqueous solutions. These findings reflect the role of MMT content in the composite thin film in improving the antifouling behavior of the membrane. The membrane with higher MMT content (PES-NF5) showed better performance in fouling resistance. It was previously reported that the fouling agents could be adsorbed onto the membrane surface via hydrophobic actions, hydrogen bond, elecrostatic interactions and van der Waals forces. Consequently, the fouling effect could be vanshed through decreasing the adsorptive driving forces and enhancing the repulsive interactions of membrane surface with the fouling molecules [44–45]. Notably, the membrane surface tends to be negatively charged under the specified testing conditions so, certain electrostatic repulsive forces could occurre between membrane surface and the fouling agent, resulting in lower fouling effect.
The presence of the MMT within the interfacial composite thin film showed improvement in antifouling behavior, resulting in higher flux recovery ratio (FRR). These results could be due to the increased hydrophilic spots within the composite thin film, which inhibit the interaction of fouling molecules with the membrane active surface groups. It has been reported that the surface hydrophilicicty is a limiting parameter for surface adsorption behavior [46–47]. The increased hydrophilicity by the presence of MMT was confirmed also by the decreased water contact angel with increasing of MMT concentration.
The fouling reversibility and membrane durability are mainly dependent on the weak bonding between the fouling molecules and the membrane surface. Consequently, the membranes could be easily washed out and re-applied in repeated fouling experiments to analyze the membrane stability and durability. The SA solution was applied as feed solution till steady state followed by washing all the permeation equipment and the used membrane by distilled water. The washed membrane was applied in pure water permeation to evaluate the pure water flux and determine the flux recovery ratio (FRR %) as below:
$$FRR\%=\left( \frac{{J}_{w2}}{{J}_{w1}}\right)x100$$
where Jw2 is the pure water flux after fouling process and Jw1 is the pure water flux before the fouling process.
The fouling process was repeated to analyze the membrane durability and stability and the results were given in Table 4.
Table 4
Flux recovery ratio for PES-NF4 and PES-NF5 membranes after repeated SA fouling-cleaning cycles
Fouling-cleaning cycles
|
FRR%
|
NF4
|
NF5
|
1st cycle
|
95%
|
96%
|
2nd cycle
|
90%
|
92%
|
3rd cycle
|
81%
|
89%
|
4th cycle
|
76%
|
81%
|
The results in Table 4 clearly show that the NF4 and NF5 membranes are relatively stable until the fourth fouling-cleaning cycle. The obtained results showed enhanced membrane stability, durability and enhanced FRR performance, which reflects the potential application of the PES-TMC/PVP-MMT membrane for water treatment.