Effective arsenic removal using polyacrylonitrile-based ultrafiltration (UF) membrane

Carbon nanotubes buckypapers: A new frontier in wastewater treatment technology

Occurrence of contaminants in water is one of the major global concerns humanity is still facing today: most of them are extremely toxic and dangerous for human health, obliging their removal for a proper and correct process of sanitation. Among wastewater treatment technologies, in the view of development of sustainable and environmentally friendly processes, membrane adsorption has proved to be a fast and simple method in the removal of pollutants, offering great contaminants recovery percentages, fast adsorbent regeneration and recycle, and easy scale-up. Due to their large surface area and tunable chemistry, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based materials revealed to be extraordinary adsorbents, exceeding by far performances of ordinary organic and inorganic membranes such as polyethersulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride, polytetrafluoroethylene, ceramics, currently employed in membrane technologies for wastewater treatment. In consideration of this, the review aims to summarize recent developments in the field of carbon nanotubes-based materials for pollutants recovery from water through adsorption processes. After a brief introduction concerning what adsorption phenomenon is and how it is performed and governed by using carbon nanotubes-based materials, the review discusses into detail the employment of three common typologies of CNTs-based materials (CNTs powders, CNTs-doped polymeric membranes and CNTs membranes) in adsorption process for the removal of water pollutants. Particularly focus will be devoted on the emergent category of self-standing CNTs membranes (buckypapers), made entirely of carbon nanotubes, exhibiting superior performances than CNTs and CNTs-doped polymeric membranes in terms of preparation strategy, recovery percentages of pollutants and regeneration possibilities. The extremely encouraging results presented in this review aim to support and pave the way to the introduction of alternative and more efficient pathways in wastewater treatment technologies to contrast the problem of water pollution.

Catalytic Dye Oxidation over CeO2 Nanoparticles Supported on Regenerated Cellulose Membrane

A novel regenerated cellulose (RC) membrane containing cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles is described in detail. In this work, CeO2 nanoparticles with high surface area and mesoporosity were prepared by a modified template-assisted precipitation method. Successful synthesis was achieved using cerium nitrate as a precursor, adjusting the final pH solution to around 11 by ammonium hydroxide and ethylene diamine, and annealing at 550 °C for 3 hours under a protective gas flow. This resulted in a surface area of 55.55 m².g–1 for the nanoparticles. The regenerated cellulose membrane containing CeO2 particles was synthesized by the novel and environmentally friendly method. The catalyst CeO2 and cellulose/CeO2 membrane were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) measurements. The g-value of 2.276 has confirmed the presence of the surface superoxide species of CeO2 nanoparticles in EPR. The photocatalytic activity of the catalyst and the membrane containing the catalyst was evaluated through the degradation of methylene blue under visible light irradiation by UV-VIS measurements. The cellulose/CeO2 membrane degraded 80% of the methylene blue solution in 120 minutes, showing a better photocatalytic activity than the CeO2 catalyst, which degraded approximately 62% in the same period. It has been proven that the RC membrane is not only a good transparent supporting material but also a good adsorption for high-performance of CeO2 catalyst. Copyright © 2022 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). 

Low-cost silica based ceramic supported thin film composite hollow fiber membrane from guinea corn husk ash for efficient removal of microplastic from aqueous solution

In this study, an economic silica based ceramic hollow fiber (HF) microporous membrane was fabricated from guinea cornhusk ash (GCHA). A silica interlayer was coated to form a defect free silica membrane which serves as a support for the formation of thin film composite (TFC) ceramic hollow fiber (HF) membrane for the removal of microplastics (MPs) from aqueous solutions. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polyvinyl-chloride (PVC), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) are the selected MPs The effects of amine monomer concentration (0.5 wt% and 1 wt%) on the formation of poly (piperazine-amide) layer via interfacial polymerization over the GCHA ceramic support were also investigated. The morphology analysis of TFC GCHA HF membranes revealed the formation of a poly (piperazine-amide) layer with narrow pore arrangement. The pore size of TFC GCHA membrane declined with the formation of poly (piperazine-amide) layer, as evidenced from porosimetry analysis. The increase of amine concentration reduced the porosity and water flux of TFC GCHA HF membranes. During MPs filtration, 1 wt% (piperazine) based TFC GCHA membrane showed a lower transmission percentage of PVP (2.7%) and other suspended MPs also displayed lower transmission. The impact of humic acid and sodium alginate on MPs filtration and seawater pretreatment were also analyzed.

Ceramic-Polymer Composite Membranes for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Bridging the Big Gap between Ceramics and Polymers

Clean water supply is an essential element for the entire sustainable human society, and the economic and technology development. Membrane filtration for water and wastewater treatments is the premier choice due to its high energy efficiency and effectiveness, where the separation is performed by passing water molecules through purposely tuned pores of membranes selectively without phase change and additional chemicals. Ceramics and polymers are two main candidate materials for membranes, where the majority has been made of polymeric materials, due to the low cost, easy processing, and tunability in pore configurations. In contrast, ceramic membranes have much better performance, extra-long service life, mechanical robustness, and high thermal and chemical stabilities, and they have also been applied in gas, petrochemical, food-beverage, and pharmaceutical industries, where most of polymeric membranes cannot perform properly. However, one of the main drawbacks of ceramic membranes is the high manufacturing cost, which is about three to five times higher than that of common polymeric types. To fill the large gap between the competing ceramic and polymeric membranes, one apparent solution is to develop a ceramic-polymer composite type. Indeed, the properly engineered ceramic-polymer composite membranes are able to integrate the advantages of both ceramic and polymeric materials together, providing improvement in membrane performance for efficient separation, raised life span and additional functionalities. In this overview, we first thoroughly examine three types of ceramic-polymer composite membranes, (i) ceramics in polymer membranes (nanocomposite membranes), (ii) thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes, and (iii) ceramic-supported polymer membranes. In the past decade, great progress has been made in improving the compatibility between ceramics and polymers, while the synergy between them has been among the main pursuits, especially in the development of the high performing nanocomposite membranes for water and wastewater treatment at lowered manufacturing cost. By looking into strategies to improve the compatibility among ceramic and polymeric components, we will conclude with briefing on the perspectives and challenges for the future development of the composite membranes.

Arsenic exposure from groundwater: environmental contamination, human health effects, and sustainable solutions

Arsenic (As) occurs naturally in geologic conditions, but groundwater contamination might also be found due to the consequences of mining, agricultural and industrial processes. Human exposure to As after drinking contaminated water is commonly associated with acute toxicity outcomes and chronic effects ranging from skin lesions to cancer. Integrated actions from environmental and health authorities are needed to reduce exposure, monitoring outcomes, and promotion of actions to offer sustainable As-safe water alternatives. Considering recent research trends, the present review summarizes and discusses current issues associated with the process and effects of contamination and decontamination in an environmental health perspective. Recent findings reinforce the harmful effects of the consumption of As-contaminated water and broaden the scope of related diseases including intestinal maladies, type 2 diabetes, cancers of bladder, kidneys, lung, and liver. Among the main strategies to diminish or remove As from water, the following are highlighted (1) ion exchange system and membrane filtration (micro, ultra, and nanofiltration) as physicochemical treatment systems; (2) use of cyanobacteria and algae in bioremediation programs and (3) application of nanotechnology for water treatment.

Removal of Dyes Using Graphene Oxide (GO) Mixed Matrix Membranes

The application of membrane technology to remove pollutant dyes in industrial wastewater is a significant development today. The modification of membranes to improve their properties has been shown to improve the permeation flux and removal efficiency of the membrane. Therefore, in this work, graphene oxide nanoparticles (GO-NPs) were used to modify the polyethersulfone (PES) membrane and prepare mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). This research is dedicated to using two types of very toxic dyes (Acid Black and Rose Bengal) to study the effect of GO on PES performance. The performance and antifouling properties of the new modified membrane were studied using the following: FTIR, SEM, AFM, water permeation flux, dye removal and fouling, and by investigating the influence of GO-NPs on the structure. After adding 0.5 wt% of GO, the contact angle was the lowest (39.21°) and the permeable flux of the membrane was the highest. The performance of the ultrafiltration (UF) membrane displayed a rejection rate higher than 99% for both dyes. The membranes showed the highest antifouling property at a GO concentration of 0.5 wt%. The long-term operation of the membrane fabricated from 0.5 wt% GO using two dyes improved greatly over 26 d from 14 d for the control membrane, therefore higher flux can be preserved.

In-situ self-assembly of robust Fe (III)-carboxyl functionalized polyacrylonitrile polymeric bead catalyst for efficient photo-Fenton oxidation of p-nitrophenol

From the view of channel confinement and functional site capture, we develop an in-situ self-assembly strategy to fabricate the carboxyl functionalized Fe-HPAN bead catalyst with highly stable and uniformly dispersed metallic sites for efficient photo-Fenton oxidation of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). BET and FTIR analysis reveal that numerous carboxyl groups and mesopores exist in Fe-HPAN beads, which acts to capture and immobilize iron ions. Catalytic results show that the degradation rate and TOC removal for p-NP were up to 99.78 and 91.68% under the optimal condition. Even at near neutral pH, the degradation rate almost keep the same and the TOC removal can still reach 73.05%. Due to the autocatalytic cycle of Fe^III/Fe^II, the apparent rate constant of Fe-HPAN (0.2247 min^-1) was 5.4 times as high as unmodified Fe-PAN (0.0415 min^-1) in the presence of H₂O₂ and visible light irradiation, which was 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than that of other reaction systems. More importantly, Fe-HPAN bead catalyst exhibited little loss of activity even after 20 cycles of re-utilization. The possible degradation pathway of p-NP was also proposed based on GC/MS analysis. The present work may provide a new perspective for the use of synthetic polymer to prepare low-cost, efficient and robust photo-Fenton oxidation catalysts.

Extraction Kinetics of As(V) by Aliquat-336 Using Asymmetric PVDF Hollow-Fiber Membrane Contactors

This work focuses on the study of the mass transfer of arsenic(V) through asymmetric polyvinylidene fluoride hollow-fiber membrane contactors using Aliquat-336 as an extractant. In the first part of this work, the fibers were prepared and characterized by SEM and by determining their thickness and porosity. From SEM pictures, an asymmetric structure was obtained that was characterized by an inner sponge-like structure and outer finger-like structure with a pore radius and porosity about 0.11 µm and 80%, respectively. In the second part, the prepared fibers were used as membrane contactors for the study of mass transfer of arsenic(V), investigating the effect of several parameters such as pH, temperature, and initial concentration of the feed. The overall mass transfer coefficient of As(V) was around 6 × 10^–6 cm/s.

Continuous, Spontaneous, and Directional Water Transport in the Trilayered Fibrous Membranes for Functional Moisture Wicking Textiles

Directional water transport is a predominant part of functional textiles used for continuous sweat release in daily life. However, it has remained a great challenge to design such textiles which ensure continuous directional water transport and superior prevention of water penetration in the reverse direction. Here, a scalable strategy is reported to create trilayered fibrous membranes with progressive wettability by introducing a transfer layer, which can guide the directional water transport continuously and spontaneously, thus preventing the skin from being rewetted. The resulting trilayered fibrous membranes exhibit a high one-way transport index R (1021%) and a desired breakthrough pressure (16.1 cm H₂ O) in the reverse direction, indicating an ultrahigh directional water transport capacity. Moreover, on the basis of water transport behavior, a plausible mechanism is proposed to provide insight into the integrative and cooperative driving forces at the interfaces of trilayered hydrophobic/transfer/superhydrophilic fibrous membranes. The successful synthesis of such fascinating materials would be valuable for the design of functional textiles with directional water transport properties for personal drying applications.

Influence of the polyacrylonitrile proportion on the fabricated UF blend membranes’ performance for humic acid removal

Asymmetric blend membranes of polyethersulfone (PES)/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) were prepared and developed for ultrafiltration applications. The membranes were prepared by dissolving two polymers in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as a solvent with diethylene glycol (DEG) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as non-solvent and pore former, respectively. The produced membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and the hydrophilicity of membranes was tested by contact angle measurements. The performance of prepared membranes was carried out by an ultrafiltration testing unit, where the efficiency of membranes was determined according to the humic acid separation and treated water permeate flux. The results indicated that using 1 wt.% of PAN in polymer mixture provided a blending membrane with high mechanical properties and high performance; the humic acid rejection reached 92.47% with treated water permeate flux 70 l/m2·h at feed pressure 6 bar.

Development of a nanocomposite ultrafiltration membrane based on polyphenylsulfone blended with graphene oxide

In the present study, graphene oxide (GO) was incorporated as a nanoadditive into a polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) to develop a PPSU/GO nanocomposite membrane with enhanced antifouling properties. A series of membranes containing different concentrations (0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 wt.%) of GO were fabricated via the phase inversion method, using N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent, deionized water as the non-solvent, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a pore forming agent. The prepared nanocomposite membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), and were also characterized with respect to contact angle, zeta potential and porosity, mean pore radius, tortuosity and molecular weight cut-off (MWCO). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile testing were used to measure thermal and mechanical properties. The membrane performance was evaluated by volumetric flux and rejection of proteins, and antifouling properties. According to the results, the optimum addition of 0.5 wt% GO resulted in a membrane with an increased flux of 171 ± 3 Lm⁻²h⁻¹ with a MWCO of ~40 kDa. In addition, the GO incorporation efficiently inhibited the interaction between proteins and the membrane surface, thereby improving the fouling resistance ability by approximately 58 ± 3%. Also, the resulting membranes showed a significant improvement in mechanical and thermal properties.

Ultrafiltration membrane for effective removal of chromium ions from potable water

The objective of the present work was to investigate the efficacy of indigenously developed polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based ultrafiltration (UF) membrane for chromium ions removal from potable water. The hydrolyzed PAN membranes effectively rejected chromium anions in the feed ranging from 250 ppb to 400 ppm and a rejection of ≥90% was achieved for pH ≥ 7 at low chromate concentration (≤25 ppm) in feed. The rejection mechanism of chromium ions was strongly dependent on Donnan exclusion principle, while size exclusion principle for UF did not play a major role on ions rejection. Feed pH played a vital role in changing porosity of membrane, which influenced the retention behavior of chromate ions. Cross-flow velocity, pressure did not play significant role for ions rejection at low feed concentration. However, at higher feed concentration (≥400 ppm), concentration polarization became important and it reduced the chromate rejection to 32% at low cross flow and high pressure. Donnan steric-partitioning pore and dielectric exclusion model (DSPM-DE) was applied to evaluate the chromate ions transport through PAN UF membrane as a function of flux by using optimized model parameters and the simulated data matched well with experimental results.

Superparamagnetic nanomaterial Fe3O4-TiO2 for the removal of As(V) and As(III) from aqueous solutions

A magnetically separable nanomaterial Fe3O4-TiO2 was synthesized and characterized which was subsequently used for the removal of arsenic (V) from aqueous solutions. The surface morphology, magnetic properties, crystalline structure, thermal stability and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface area of the synthesized Fe3O4-TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) are characterized by scanning electron microscope and high-resolution transmission electron microscope, vibrating sample magnetometry, X-ray diffractometer, thermogravimetric analysis and multi point function surface area analyzer. The saturation magnetization of Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs was determined to be 50.97 emu/g, which makes them superparamagnetic. The surface area of Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs was as much as 94.9 m(2)/g. The main factors affecting adsorption efficiency, such as solution pH, reaction time, initial As(V) concentration and adsorbent concentration are investigated. When the adsorption isotherms were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich models, equilibrium data were found to be well represented by Freundlich isotherm, and adsorption on Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs fitted well with pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The maximum adsorption capacity of As(V) on Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs, calculated by the Freundlich model was determined at 11.434 µg/g. 1.0 g/L of Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs was efficient for complete removal of 100 µg/L As(V) in 1 h. Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs was also effective for 93% removal of 100 µg/L As(III). Matrix effect was determined using As(V)-contaminated well water. Successfull results were obtained for purification of real well water containing 137.12 µg/L As(V). Results show that Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs are promising adsorbents with an advantage of magnetic separation.

Tabas coal preparation plant wastewater treatment with membrane technology

The goal of the present work is the Tabas coal preparation plant wastewater treatment using membrane technology. Polyacrylonitrile membrane was prepared through phase inversion method and then developed by annealing process. Also, high fouling resistance membranes were prepared by the embedding of TiO2 nanoparticles using self-assembling and blending methods. The effect of immersion time and TiO2 nanoparticles concentration was investigated using two techniques. The chemical structure, morphology, hydrophilicity, molecular weight cut-off and antifouling properties of membranes were characterized using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, contact angle, polyethylene glycol tracers, and cationic polyacrylamide (C-PAM) filtration, respectively. The optimized self-assembled membrane was shown to have more than 31.2% higher water flux with the best antifouling properties. Improving hydrophilicity leads to excellent antifouling properties for composite membranes and illustrates a promising method for fabrication of high performance membrane for C-PAM separation.

Enhanced hydrophilic and antifouling polyacrylonitrile membrane with polydopamine modified silica nanoparticles

Hydrophilic and antifouling polydopamine modified silica nanoparticles-polyacrylonitrile membranes were fabricated for water purification applications. High dispersion and better compatibility of modified nanoparticles with polyacrylonitrile was observed.

Fabrication and characterization of a polysulfone-graphene oxide nanocomposite membrane for arsenate rejection from water

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, study and application of modified membranes for water treatment have been considered significantly. The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize a polysulfone (PSF)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite membrane and to evaluate for arsenate rejection from water.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The nanocomposite PSF/GO membrane was fabricated using wet phase inversion method. The effect of GO on the synthesized membrane morphology and hydrophilicity was studied by using FE-SEM, AFM, contact angle, zeta potential, porosity and pore size tests. The membrane performance was also evaluated in terms of pure water flux and arsenate rejection.

RESULTS

ATR-FTIR confirmed the presence of hydrophilic functional groups on the surface of the prepared GO. FE-SEM micrographs showed that with increasing GO content in the casting solution, the sub-layer structure was enhanced and the drop like voids in the pure PSF membrane changed to macrovoids in PSF/GO membrane along with increase in porosity. AFM images indicated lower roughness of modified membrane compared to pure PSF membrane. Furthermore, contact angle measurement and permeation experiment showed that by increasing GO up to 1 wt%, membrane hydrophilicity and pure water flux were increased. For PSF/GO-1, pure water flux was calculated about 50 L/m(2)h at 4 bar. The maximum rejection was obtained by PSF/GO-2 about 83.65 % at 4 bar. Moreover, it was revealed that arsenate rejection depended on solution pH values. It was showed that with increasing pH, the rejection increased.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that application of GO as an additive to PSF casting solution could enhance the membrane hydrophilicity, porosity, flux and arsenate rejection.

Preparation of iron-impregnated granular activated carbon for arsenic removal from drinking water

Granular activated carbon (GAC) was impregnated with iron through a new multi-step procedure using ferrous chloride as the precursor for removing arsenic from drinking water. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis demonstrated that the impregnated iron was distributed evenly on the internal surface of the GAC. Impregnated iron formed nano-size particles, and existed in both crystalline (akaganeite) and amorphous iron forms. Iron-impregnated GACs (Fe-GACs) were treated with sodium hydroxide to stabilize iron in GAC and impregnated iron was found very stable at the common pH range in water treatments. Synthetic arsenate-contaminated drinking water was used in isotherm tests to evaluate arsenic adsorption capacities and iron use efficiencies of Fe-GACs with iron contents ranging from 1.64% to 12.13% (by weight). Nonlinear regression was used to obtain unbiased estimates of Langmuir model parameters. The arsenic adsorption capacity of Fe-GAC increased significantly with impregnated iron up to 4.22% and then decreased with more impregnated iron. Fe-GACs synthesized in this study exhibited higher affinity for arsenate as compared with references in literature and shows great potential for real implementations.