Lakhotia Sonia R, Mukhopadhyay Mausumi, Kumari Premlata
Applied Chemistry Department, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, 395007, Gujarat, India.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, 395007, Gujarat, India.
Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 21;8(1):4976. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23188-7.
In this paper, a new approach to synthesize thin-film nanocomposite membranes using cerium oxide (CeO) nanoparticles (NPs) by pre-seeding interfacial polymerization method was reported. Prepared membranes were examined using contact angle, molecular weight cut-off (MWCO), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) to observe its hydrophilicity, pore size, morphology, surface chemistry, and roughness, respectively. Surface charges of the prepared membranes were also qualitatively calculated with the help of contact angle measurements by using the Grahame equation. MWCO studies revealed >90% polyethylene glycol (M.W. 1500 Da) rejection, which was fitted in the range of nanofiltration. By increasing the concentration of CeO NPs, flux (33.12 to 41.28 L/mh), hydrophilicity (77.3 to 51.1°) and surface charges (-7.58 to -13.39 mC/m) of the membranes was successfully improved, and also showed the high (>90%) salt rejections. The CeO embedded membrane was also found out in successful prevention from the attack of bacteria (Escherichia coli) compared to pure polyamide (PA) membrane and confirmed through SEM and viable cell count method. The membrane performances were also evaluated using seawater for fouling study and found that CeO embedded surface increased the rejection of hydrophobic contaminants, and notably reduced the fouling.
本文报道了一种通过预播种界面聚合法使用氧化铈（CeO）纳米颗粒（NPs）合成薄膜纳米复合膜的新方法。使用接触角、截留分子量（MWCO）、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和扫描探针显微镜（SPM）对制备的膜进行检测，分别观察其亲水性、孔径、形态、表面化学和粗糙度。还借助接触角测量并使用格雷厄姆方程定性计算了制备膜的表面电荷。MWCO研究表明，聚乙二醇（分子量1500 Da）的截留率>90%，符合纳滤范围。通过增加CeO NPs的浓度，膜的通量（33.12至41.28 L/mh）、亲水性（77.3至51.1°）和表面电荷（-7.58至-13.39 mC/m）得到成功改善，并且还显示出高（>90%）的盐分截留率。与纯聚酰胺（PA）膜相比，还发现CeO嵌入膜成功防止了细菌（大肠杆菌）的侵袭，并通过SEM和活菌计数法得到证实。还使用海水对膜性能进行了污垢研究评估，发现CeO嵌入表面增加了对疏水性污染物的截留率，并显著减少了污垢。
