Fabrication of novel PPSU/ZSM-5 ultrafiltration hollow fiber membranes for separation of proteins and hazardous reactive dyes

Abstract

Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) based asymmetric hollow fiber membranes were prepared by the addition of different percentages of ZSM-5 particles by diffusion induced phase separation method. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as a pore forming agent. The fabricated membranes were characterized by Field Emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), contact angle, water permeability, water uptake and by porosity measurements. Membranes filtration study was performed using different proteins namely bovine serum albumin (BSA), egg albumin (EA) and hazardous dyes like Reactive black 5 (RB-5), Reactive orange 16 (RO-16) in aqueous solutions. It was found that, addition of ZSM-5 in membrane matrix showed better dye removal capacity because of its hydrophilic and adsorptive nature. The membrane (PZ-3) with higher loading of additive exhibited rejection percentages of 100% for BSA, 95.23% for EA proteins and with reactive dyes 90.81% for RB-5 and 82.84% for RO-16 as compared to the pristine HF membrane.