Pandele Andreea Madalina, Oprea Madalina, Dutu Andreea Aura, Miculescu Florin, Voicu Stefan Ioan
Advanced Polymer Materials Group, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Gh. Polizu Street, 011061 Bucharest, Romania.
Department of Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 1-7 Gh. Polizu Street, 011061 Bucharest, Romania.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Dec 31;14(1):148. doi: 10.3390/polym14010148.
Heavy metal poisoning is a rare health condition caused by the accumulation of toxic metal ions in the soft tissues of the human body that can be life threatening if left untreated. In the case of severe intoxications, hemodialysis is the most effective method for a rapid clearance of the metal ions from the bloodstream, therefore, the development of hemodialysis membranes with superior metal ions retention ability is of great research interest. In the present study, synthetic polysulfone membranes were modified with reduced graphene oxide functionalized with crown ether, an organic compound with high metal ions complexation capacity. The physico-chemical characteristics of the composite membranes were determined by FT-IR, Raman, XPS and SEM analysis while their efficiency in retaining metal ions was evaluated via ICP-MS analysis. The obtained results showed that the thermal stability of reduced graphene oxide was improved after functionalization with crown ether and that the presence of the carbonaceous filler influenced the membranes morphology in terms of pore dimensions and membrane thickness. Moreover, the ability of Cu ions retention from synthetic feed solution was up to three times higher in the case of the composite membranes compared to the neat ones.
重金属中毒是一种罕见的健康状况，由有毒金属离子在人体软组织中的积累引起，如果不治疗可能危及生命。在严重中毒的情况下，血液透析是从血液中快速清除金属离子的最有效方法，因此，开发具有卓越金属离子保留能力的血液透析膜具有重大的研究意义。在本研究中，用冠醚功能化的还原氧化石墨烯对合成聚砜膜进行了改性，冠醚是一种具有高金属离子络合能力的有机化合物。通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR）、拉曼光谱、X射线光电子能谱（XPS）和扫描电子显微镜（SEM）分析确定了复合膜的物理化学特性，同时通过电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）分析评估了它们保留金属离子的效率。所得结果表明，冠醚功能化后还原氧化石墨烯的热稳定性得到提高，并且碳质填料的存在在孔径和膜厚度方面影响了膜的形态。此外，与纯膜相比，复合膜从合成进料溶液中保留铜离子的能力高出三倍。
