Hydrophilic polydopamine/polyvinylpyrrolidone blended polyphenylsulfone hollow fiber membranes for the removal of arsenic-V from water.

Abstract

The demand for fresh drinking water is sky rocketing with the world's increasing population, urbanization and various industrial growth. However, toxic heavy metals and metalloids like arsenic is contaminating the drinking water. Arsenic is poisonous, carcinogenic and mutagenic for millions of population. We hereby proposing in-house fabricated novel hollow fiber membranes using polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) and pore-forming agent polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) along with increased concentrations of bio-inspired hydrophilic additive polydopamine (PDA) for removal of arsenic-V from the drinking water. The crystallinity of PDA was interpreted by X-ray diffraction. The morphology, topology and membrane surface chemistry of fabricated membranes were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicated that, for the PDA-contained membranes overall performance was increased in terms of membrane hydrophilic characteristics and rejection efficacy. A 3 wt% of PDA in PPSU/PVP (PDA-3) executed enhanced arsenate (As-V) removal as high as 87.15% with flux of 31.80 L/m2h, which was higher than the neat membrane (PDA-0) as 67.70% with flux of 15.07 L/m2h for 5 mL/L arsenic-V aqueous solution at 0.2 MPa transmembrane pressure. Improved antifouling properties were observed from PDA-contained hollow fiber membranes, as evidenced by the improved flux recovery ratio and superior thermal stability. The mechanical properties (tensile strength) of pristine and PDA-contained membranes was also investigated.