• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.183-195
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• 2014

The efficiency of two metal ions (cadmium, zinc) removal from aqueous solutions by ultrafiltration (UF) and Polymer Enhanced Ultrafiltration (PEUF) processes were investigated in this work. The UF and PEUF studies were carried out using an ultrafiltration tangential cell system equipped with 5.000 MWCO regenerated cellulose. A water-soluble polymer: the polyacrylic acid (PAA) was used as complexant for PEUF experiments. The effects of transmembrane pressure, pH, metal ions and loading ratio on permeate fluxes and metal ions removals were evaluated. In UF process, permeate fluxes increase linearly with increasing pH for different transmembrane pressure, which may be the consequence of the formation of soluble metal hydroxyl complexes in the aqueous phase. In PEUF process, above pH 5.0, the Cd(II) retention reaches a plateau at 90% and Zn(II) at 80% for L = 5. Also, cadmium retention at different L is greater than zinc retention at pH varying from 5.0 to 9.0. In a mixture solution, cadmium retention is higher than zinc for different loading ratio, this is due to interactions between carboxylic groups of PAA and metal ions and more important with cadmium ions.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.231-251
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• 2010

The sulfatation of chitosan, by reaction with chlorosulfonic acid under controlled conditions, allowed increasing the pH range of chitosan solubility. The biopolymer was characterized using FTIR and $^{13}C$-NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and titration analysis and it was tested for mercury recovery by polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF). In slightly alkaline conditions (i.e., pH 8) mercury recovery was possible and at saturation of the polymer the molar ratio $-NH_2$/Hg(II) tended to 2.6. Polymer recycling was possible changing the pH to 2 and the polymer was reused for 3 cycles maintaining high metal recovery. The presence of chloride ions influences metal speciation and affinity for the polymer and "playing" with metal speciation allowed using the PEUF process for mercury separation from cadmium; at pH 11 the formation of hydroxo-complexes of Hg(II) limits it retention. Cake formation reveals the predominant controlling step for permeation flux.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2018

The interactions of water soluble polymers with dye are studied by ultrafiltration using a molecular weight cut off of 10 KDa regenerated cellulose ultrafiltration membrane. Two water-soluble polymers, namely Poly (Sodium-4 Styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) (PVA) were selected for this study. The effects of process parameters, such as, polyelectrolyte concentrations, transmembrane pressure, ionic strength and pH of solution on dye retention and permeation flux were examined. PSS enhanced ultrafiltration achieved dye retention as high as 99% as a result of complexation between polyanion containing aromatic groups and cationic dye. This result was confirmed by the red shift. The retention of dye decreases as the salt concentration increases, a high retention was obtained at pH above 4. However, in case of PVA, relatively low retention (50%) was observed. Ionic strength and pH has no significant effect on the removal of MB. The permeate flux depended slightly on polyelectrolytes concentrations, transmembrane pressure, salt concentration and pH.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 1997

Polymeric micellar enhanced ultrafiltration method using a new type of polyrmer, $\alpha$-allyl-$\omega$-methoxy polyoxyethlene and maleic anhydride copolymer (AKM-0531, Mw 15, 000), has been proposed to separate 1-naphthylamine as a weak cationic toxic organic solubilizate. Enhancement effect of polymeric micelle was identified by the ultrafiltration runs using polyacryronitrile(PAN) holow fiber membrane with molecular weight cut off 6, 000. The linear dependance of flux on the pressure difference is shown to be valid up to 0.6kg/${cm}^2$ and the rate of flux increase in response to change in the pressure is gradually reduced under the pressure difference. Rejection of 0.96 was observed for f mM of 1-naphthylamine with 2 wt.% polymer solution at the conditions of 0.4kg/${cm}^2$, natural pH. and $25^{\circ}C$ Solubilization of 1-naphthylamine into the polymeric micelle enhanced the separation efficiency.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.351-363
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• 2015

To increase the surface hydrophilicity of PVDF membranes, in this paper, an electric enhancing method was adopted to treat PVDF nascent membranes during the phase inversion process. It was found that when PEG 600 was taken as the additive, the surface water contact angle of the PVDF membrane treated under 2 kV electric field was decreased from $84.0^{\circ}$ to $65.7^{\circ}$. The reason for the surface elements change of the PVDF membranes prepared under the electric field was analyzed in detail with the dielectric parameters of the polymer dope solutions. Results from BSA adsorption experiment showed that the antifouling ability of the external electric field-treated membranes was distinctly enhanced when compared with that of the untreated membranes. The amount of BSA adsorbed by the treated membranes was lower by 38-43%. Compared with the common chemical reaction methods to synthesize hydrophilic additives or membrane materials, the electric field-assisted processing method did not involve any additional chemical synthesis process and it was capable of realizing better hydrophilicity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2006

Biodegradable amphiphilic polymer was synthesized for removing hydrophobic pollutants(phenol, 4-nitrophenol, benzene, and toluene) and metal ions ($Cs^{+},\;Mg^{2+},\;Cu^{2+},\;Ni^{2+}$, and $Cr^{3}$). The methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)s with different molecular weights (1,100 and 5,000) were used as a hydrophilic segment. The rejection ratio improved in the relatively high molecular weight of MPEG. The rejection ratio of biodegradable nanoparticles without pollutants was over 98%. In removal of hydrophobic pollutants, the rejection ratio increased with the hydrophobic properties. The electron valence affects the rejection ratio of metal ions, indicating rejection ratio was ordered as $3^{+}>2^{+}>1^{+}$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.219-232
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• 2007

The polyethersulfone(PES)-titanium oxide($TiO_2$) hybrid membranes were prepared by immersion precipitation phase inversion method. The casting solution for the preparation of $PES-TiO_2$ hybrid membrane was provided by adding $TiO_2$ nano particles into the basis polymer solution of 14 wt% and 20 wt% PES/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP). The $TiO_2$ loading [wt% ($TiO_2/NMP$)] in eating solution was varied from 0 to 60 wt%. Membrane performance and morphological change of the resulting $PES-TiO_2$ hybrid membranes were discussed in aspect of $TiO_2$ loading, by viscosity, coagulation value and light transmittance of the casting solution, measurement of tensile strength, pore size and contact angle, surface and cross sectional SEM images of the hybrid membrane, and ultrafiltration experiments using the hybrid membrane. According as increase of $TiO_2$ loading in the casting solution, viscosity is increased and coagulation value becomes lower, therefore the thermodynamic instability of the casting solution is increased. It is found that when $TiO_2$ loading is increased, 1) precipitation rate becomes faster while instantaneous demixing is maintained, 2) pure water flux, membrane pore size and compaction stability of the resulting membranes are increased, 3) tensile strength and contact angle are decreased. Dead-end ultrafiltration of bovine serum albumin(BSA) solution using the hybrid membrane shows that membrane performance(flux of BSA solution) enhanced up to 7 times compared with the results obtained using the pure PES membrane(not containing $TiO_2$ particle), due to the increase of hydrophilicity.