Treatment of synthetic textile dye effluent using hybrid adsorptive ultrafiltration mixed matrix membranes

Abstract

Textile industries are facing critical issues in dyes disposal and water reclamation. In this regards, emerging adsorptive membranes have shown tremendous potential for the removal of contaminants from wastewaters. As-prepared iron doped TiO2 nanotubes (FeTNT) and silver doped TiO2 nanotubes (AgTNT) are embedded in polyethersulfone (PES) matrix for adsorptive removal of rhodamine B dye from textile wastewater. SEM and EDX revealed that Fe and Ag were attached on the FeTNT and AgTNT nanocomposites respectively. Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) morphological analysis revealed a spongy structure with less macrovoid formation. The addition of hydrophilic TNT enhanced the surface free energy and water permeability of the resulting MMMs. For rhodamine B batch adsorption, pH 2 was found to be optimum for maximum removal efficiency using MMMs incorporated with 0.4 wt% FeTNT. Sips isotherm and second order Lagregren model are good correlation with rhodamine B adsorption data of pristine PES and functionalized PES MMMs. A maximum rhodamine B removal efficiency of 97% was observed in FeTNTePES MMMs at the transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 200 kPa. The influence of sodium sulfate on rhodamine B removal was also studied for continuous filtration system. The findings of this study indicated that FeTNT MMMs is an effective adsorptive membrane for dye wastewater reclamation at low TMP.