Zhou Wei, Liu Qiao, Xu Nong, Wang Qing, Fan Long, Dong Qiang
Hefei Tianmai Biotechnology Development Co., Ltd., No. 199 Fanhua Ave., Hefei 230601, China.
School of Energy, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China.
Membranes (Basel). 2023 Mar 26;13(4):377. doi: 10.3390/membranes13040377.
Organic polymeric ultrafiltration (UF) membranes have been widely used in protein separation due to their advantages of high flux and simple manufacturing process. However, due to the hydrophobic nature of the polymer, pure polymeric UF membranes need to be modified or hybrid to increase their flux and anti-fouling performance. In this work, tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) and graphene oxide (GO) were simultaneously added to the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) casting solution to prepare a TiO@GO/PAN hybrid ultrafiltration membrane using a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS). During the phase separation process, TBT underwent a sol-gel reaction to generate hydrophilic TiO nanoparticles in situ. Some of the generated TiO nanoparticles reacted with the GO through a chelation interaction to form TiO@GO nanocomposites. The resulting TiO@GO nanocomposites had higher hydrophilicity than the GO. They could selectively segregate towards the membrane surface and pore walls through the solvent and non-solvent exchange during the NIPS, significantly improving the membrane's hydrophilicity. The remaining TiO nanoparticles were segregated from the membrane matrix to increase the membrane's porosity. Furthermore, the interaction between the GO and TiO also restricted the excessive segregation of the TiO nanoparticles and reduced their losing. The resulting TiO@GO/PAN membrane had a water flux of 1487.6 L·m·h and a bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection rate of 99.5%, which were much higher than those of the currently available UF membranes. It also exhibited excellent anti-protein fouling performance. Therefore, the prepared TiO@GO/PAN membrane has important practical applications in the field of protein separation.
有机聚合物超滤（UF）膜因其高通量和制造工艺简单的优点，已被广泛应用于蛋白质分离。然而，由于聚合物的疏水性，纯聚合物超滤膜需要进行改性或复合，以提高其通量和抗污染性能。在本工作中，将钛酸四丁酯（TBT）和氧化石墨烯（GO）同时添加到聚丙烯腈（PAN）铸膜液中，采用非溶剂诱导相分离（NIPS）法制备了TiO@GO/PAN复合超滤膜。在相分离过程中，TBT发生溶胶-凝胶反应原位生成亲水性TiO纳米颗粒。生成的一些TiO纳米颗粒通过螯合作用与GO反应形成TiO@GO纳米复合材料。所得的TiO@GO纳米复合材料比GO具有更高的亲水性。在NIPS过程中，它们可以通过溶剂和非溶剂交换选择性地向膜表面和孔壁偏析，显著提高膜的亲水性。其余的TiO纳米颗粒从膜基质中偏析出来以增加膜的孔隙率。此外，GO与TiO之间的相互作用还限制了TiO纳米颗粒的过度偏析并减少了它们的流失。所得的TiO@GO/PAN膜的水通量为1487.6 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹，牛血清白蛋白（BSA）截留率为99.5%，远高于目前可用的超滤膜。它还表现出优异的抗蛋白质污染性能。因此，制备的TiO@GO/PAN膜在蛋白质分离领域具有重要的实际应用价值。
