Document Type : Original Article
Authors
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1 Water Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza 12622, Egypt 2 Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
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Water Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, 33 El Buhouth St., Dokki, 12622 Giza, Egypt
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Public Works Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, 1 Elsarayat St., Abbassia, 11517 Cairo, Egypt
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Faculty of Science, Ein Shams University
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1 Water Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza 12622, Egypt
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Lehrstuhl für Technische Chemie II and Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZWU), Universität Duisburg-Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany
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Department of Water Pollution Control, Environmental Science Division, National Research Centre
Abstract
Overcoming the increased protein fouling of polymeric polyethersulfone-based membranes (e.g. PES-PVP, PES-pluronic, and PES-Tetronic) is an essential target for wider ulrafiltration-based applications of such fabricated membranes. Hence, this study has been actively devoted to trace both performance and characteristics changes of modified PES-based membranes upon exposure to harsh cleaning condition by sodium hypochlorite (400 ppm for 10 days). Simultaneously, different characterization tools have been adopted to study such purpose such as SEM, FTIR, tensile strength, performance patterns. SEM analysis has proved the increment in pore size after contacting the fabricated membranes with NaOCl agent. However, tensile strength, contact angle, and overall porosity criteria showed a slight change. For instance, overall porosity ranged between 70-80 %, contact angle difference was about 3-4 deg, and tensile strength decrement was negligible. Further, AFM data proved that the relative roughness of all membranes did not dramatically. what is more, performance patterns in terms of pure water permeability is boosted two-three fold compared to untreated membranes with preserving BSA rejection ability (e.g. maximum BSA rejection loss is recorded for PES-T904 membrane; decrease from 70 % to about 55 %; about 21 % loss). Such preserved ultrafiltration behaviour may be ascribed to the more formed negative charge, and preservation hydrophilic nature even after NaOCl exposure. to end with, the fabricated modified PES membranes showed a preserved ultrafiltration performance after such harsh cleaning condition.
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