Performance study of novel PES membrane using electrospray deposition method for organic contaminants separation

Abstract

The aim of this study is to design and fabricate a new kind of membrane that could be used effectively in wastewater treatment. In this study, a novel type of electrosprayed thin membrane was synthesized via electrospray deposition technique and its properties were compared with electrospun membrane in terms of structure and separation efficiency. The electrosprayed thin membrane was developed using dope solution composed of 20 wt. % polyethersulfone (PES) and 80 wt. % n-methyle-2-pyrrolidone/dimethylformamide mixture. The electrosprayed PES membrane exhibited water flux of up to 100 Lm-2h-1 at 2 bar with porosity of 76 % which is very similar to the electrospun membranes. The electrosprayed PES membrane also showed an excellent tensile strength up to 4.5 MPa and demonstrated about 81 % and 63 % rejection rate against humic acid (HA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), respectively when tested at 2 bar. The fouling of the membrane was further studied using FTIR, TGA and XPS analysis and the results confirmed that the membrane did not suffer from substantial fouling. Moreover, a high flux recovery was recorded, indicating low fouling tendency of the membrane. Overall, the findings showed that the electrosprayed thin PES membrane performed better than the electrospun PES membrane for wastewater treatment.