Improved hydrophilic and antifouling performance of nanocomposite ultrafiltration zwitterionic polyphenylsulfone membrane for protein rejection applications

Abstract

Emerging technologies for the separation of proteins employ ultrafiltration membranes that incorporate hydrophilic zwitterionic nanoparticles for enhanced performances and efficacy. In this study, the zwitterionic nanoparticles were synthesized by the simple, facile distillation–precipitation polymerization (DPP) method. The monomers [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (DMAPDS) and 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VA), and the crosslinker N,N’-methylenebis(acrylamide) (MBAm) are utilized for the synthesis of P(MBAm-co-DMAPDS-co-VA) nanoparticle and the synthesized nanoparticle was incorporated into polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) flat sheet membrane for the effective protein rejection application. These nanoparticles greatly influence the membrane porosity and contact angle. The hydrophilic nature of the membrane samples was improved by the hydrophilic groups present in the nanoparticle. The modified membrane exhibited the highest pure water flux of the 249.4 L m−2 h−1 than the pristine of 70.6 L m−2 h−1 and enhanced flux recovery ratio and reversible fouling by 29.7 and 11.2%, respectively. The protein rejection of bovine serum albumin, pepsin, and egg albumin was found to be 92.1, 60.4, and 80.3%, respectively. Overall the fabricated membranes are highly effective in protein separation.