Self-cleaning antifouling performance based on the surface area of flower-like TiO2 as additive for PSF mixed matrix membrane

Abstract

The photocatalytic polymer mixed matrix membrane (MMM) has been widely used for the separation and purification process. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of structural TiO2 (synthetic TiO2 (ST), flower-like TiO2-100 (FLT-100), and flower-like TiO2-600 (FLT-600)) based on the total surface area for the efficient self-cleaning antifouling property. The asymmetric MMMs were fabricated using the phase inversion process with a different type of structural TiO2 as additive. As a result, the addition of synthesized FLT, especially FLT-100, has influenced the hydrophilicity and surface roughness of the MMM. From the powder analysis, FLT-100 exhibits the highest total surface area with 37.25 m2/g and strongly affects the self-cleaning antifouling performance of the MMM. This membrane produced the highest self-cleaning efficiency (68.8%) compared to FLT-600 (58%) and ST (39.8%) after UV exposure, thus, indicates in a better self-cleaning antifouling property that offers the potential to be considered for commercialization in reducing the maintenance cost by using both physical and chemical cleaning method that becomes a problem in membrane technologies.