Fabrication of a Novel Antifouling Polysulfone Membrane with in Situ Embedment of Mxene Nanosheets

Zhen Shen, Wei Chen, Hang Xu, Wen Yang, Qing Kong, Ao Wang, Mingmei Ding and Juan Shang
Additional contact information
Zhen Shen: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Wei Chen: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Hang Xu: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Wen Yang: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Qing Kong: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Ao Wang: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Mingmei Ding: Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, No.1 Xikang Road, Nanjing 210098, China
Juan Shang: Wanjiang University of Technology, Maanshan 243031, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: Membrane fouling is still a critical issue for the application of ultrafiltration, which has been widely used in water treatment due to its efficiency and simplicity. In order to improve the antifouling property, a new 2D material MXene was used to fabricate composite ultrafiltration membrane with the approach of in situ embedment during the phase inversion process in this study. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), water contact angle, bovine serum albumin rejection and porosity measurements were utilized to characterize the prepared membranes. Due to the hydrophilicity of the MXene, the composite membranes obtained higher hydrophilicity, confirmed by the decreased water contact angle. All the modified membranes had a high bovine serum albumin rejection above 90% while that of the pristine polysulfone membrane was 77.48%. The flux recovery ratio and the reversible fouling ratio of the membranes were also improved along with the increasing content of the MXene. Furthermore, the highest flux recovery ratio could also reach 76.1%. These indicated the good antifouling properties of MXene composite membranes. The enhanced water permeability and protein rejection and excellent antifouling properties make MXene a promising material for antifouling membrane modification.

Keywords: MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x ); polysulfone; hydrophilicity; ultrafiltration membrane; antifouling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/23/4659/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/23/4659/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:23:p:4659-:d:289981

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().