Enhancement of Reverse Osmosis Membranes For Groundwa 2023 Environmental Nan
Enhancement of Reverse Osmosis Membranes For Groundwa 2023 Environmental Nan
Enhancement of Reverse Osmosis Membranes For Groundwa 2023 Environmental Nan
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Modified reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are emerging in the fields of water desalination and purification as
Ultrathin graphitic carbon nitride next-generation separation techniques. Highly efficient graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) RO membranes were
Cellulose acetate fabricated by incorporating g-C3N4 into polyvinyl alcohol-based cellulose acetate. X-ray diffraction, scanning
Polyvinyl alcohol
electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were
Desalination
employed to determine the crystal structure and textural qualities of the ultrathin graphitic layers. The interlayer
spacing of the g-C3N4 in the modified membranes was relatively narrow, which significantly impacted membrane
performance. Phase inversion was employed to fabricate uniform and compact g-C3N4 hybrid membranes. The
impact of the g-C3N4 loading quantity in the polymeric solution on viscosity and membrane performance was
investigated. An optimized concentration of 0.5 wt% for the ultrathin g-C3N4 resulted in a distinguished dense
top layer. The fabricated RO membranes were evaluated using a synthetic saline solution (2000 ppm of NaCl),
resulting in a percentage rejection of 95% at a reasonable operating pressure of 15 bar to exhibit 10.5 LMH. The
fabricated membranes exhibited self-cleaning properties after soaking in malachite green dye (10 mgL− l); this
demonstrated the antifouling properties of the membrane. The g-C3N4 membrane was successfully applied in a
groundwater purification process and its efficiency was observed to reach approximately 97%. This membrane is
promising for groundwater treatment.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (E.S. Mansor).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enmm.2022.100760
Received 11 June 2022; Received in revised form 26 October 2022; Accepted 14 November 2022
Available online 21 November 2022
2215-1532/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
CA (MW100000) and PVA (MW90000) were provided by Sigma 2.3. Fabrication of RO membranes
Aldrich. Dimethyl acetamide (DMAC) and isopropyl alcohol were pur
chased from Roth Specialities India. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and The membranes were fabricated by phase inversion. The g-C3N4
melamine were purchased from Sigma Aldrich. As a crosslinker, 1,2,3,4- nanosheets were dispersed in DMAC under sonication for 1 h at 50 kHz.
butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) was obtained from Merck, Germany This mixture was added to a polymeric solution comprising the main
(purity > 99). polymer (CA, 24 wt%) and PVA (4 wt%). The composition of the poly
meric solution is presented in Table 1. The mixture was stirred for 12 h
2.2. Preparation of ultrathin g-C3N4 nanosheets and cast on nonwoven polyester with a thickness of 200 μm. Thereafter,
the sheet was instantly dipped into a deionized water (DW) coagulating
Bulk C3N4 was prepared by the thermal decomposition of melamine bath to form the membrane with annealing treatment. The variation in
at 600 ◦ C for 2 h. The sample was cooled and ground then sonicated in the mechanical properties of the membrane due to the nearness of the
isopropyl alcohol at 50 kHz for 12 h. NPs was compared with the good quality of the nonwoven textures,
where it was considered irrelevant since it was extremely small. The
mechanical properties of the nonwoven textures are listed in Table 2.
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
2.4. Characterization
where Ww and Wd are the masses of the wet and dry membranes (g),
respectively. PH is the water density (0.998 g/cm3), and A and L are the
membrane area (m2) and thickness (m), respectively.
Jw2 − Jp
Rr = × 100 (6)
Jw1
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Fig. 5. Cross-sectional topographies for the modified membranes with g- C3N4 nanosheets loading amount 0.5 wt% and 0.7 wt%.
The nucleation process may have been delayed because of the trap 2013). The stress strength of the manufactured membrane with an
ping of the nonsolvent in the polymeric solution. Thus, the hydrogen embedding ratio of 0.5 wt% was 9.12 N/m2. Additionally, the elonga
bonding with the former delayed the nucleation process, where the tion was enhanced to 18.7 mm (Fig. 6). The mechanical properties
nonsolvent was more restrained in the polymeric solution mixture, remained high at 0.7 wt%, but the ideal embedding ratio from other
owing to the hydrogen bonds between the C3N4 and DW molecules (El studies was 0.5 wt%. This was due to the good distribution of NPs, which
Badawi et al., 2014). A high magnification was employed to confirm the provided a convenient filling and reacted with PES (Amirilargani et al.,
presence of the dense layer. The addition of g-C3N4 reduced the skin 2010; Razmjou et al., 2011).
thickness, and a dense top layer was formed. This was attributed to the
interaction between the base polymers (CA–PVA) and g-C3N4 through 3.6. Hydrophilic properties of the fabricated membranes
hydrogen bonds (Shahabi et al., 2019). Additionally, the nonporous
structure of g-C3N4 provided the modified membrane with an extra Contact angle measurements were performed to study the surface
sieving effect (Coa et al., 2015). hydrophilicity of the membranes, and the results are shown in Fig. 7.
The blank membrane had a lower contact angle than those of the
3.5. Mechanical properties modified membranes. The formed hydrogen bonds between the OH
molecules in the polymerization matrix and triazine groups slightly
The mechanical test results of the membranes indicated an increased the contact angle when g-C3N4 was incorporated into the
enhancement in the mechanical properties with an increase in the ratio polymeric solution of CA/PVA membranes (Fig. 7) (Safarpour et al.,
of NPs from 0% to 0.7%.wt. This was attributed to the excellent elec 2015; Vatanpour et al., 2017). The efficiency of the separation processes
trostatic and hydrogen bonding interactions between the poly strongly depends on the surface properties of the membrane, such as
ethersulfone (PES) chains and NPs (Huang et al., 2015; Martinez et al., hydrophilicity. A membrane is classified hydrophilic if its contact angle
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Fig. 5. (continued).
Fig. 7. Water contact angle for the neat membrane and the modified with
Fig. 6. Mechanical properties of the prepared membranes with different g-c3N4.
loading amount of g-C3N4.
angle decreased and eventually reached 60◦ at a high g-C3N4 concen
is below 90◦ and hydrophobic if its contact angle exceeds 90◦ (Amir tration of 0.7 wt% (Wang et al., 2017). The hydrophilic nanosheets of g-
uddin et al., 2022). Here, CA–PVA had the lowest contact angle (53◦ ) C3N4 on the surface with a concentration exceeding 0.7 wt% stimulated
because of their high hydrophilicity, while the modified membrane had the formation of hydrogen bonds with the water molecules, which
a contact angle of 67◦ . The hybrid membranes exhibited contact angles strengthened the affinity between the water and membrane surface and
slightly higher than that of the neat membrane, but significantly, the reduced the water contact angle (Oskoui et al., 2019).
modified membrane was hydrophilic because of the hydrophilic groups
in g-C3N4. However, as the g-C3N4 concentration increased, the contact
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Fig. 9 shows the flux of pure water for the blank and altered mem
branes after 1 h. With the addition of g-C3N4 nanosheets to the poly
meric layer, the NaCl salt separation improved and reached its
maximum (99.7%) in the membranes containing 0.5- wt% nanosheets.
This was due to the discord impact between the negative charges on
the film surface, owing to the presence of the g-C3N4 nanosheets and salt
particles. The zeta potential at a pH of 7 for the g-C3N4 nanosheets was
− 21.7 mV (Wen et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2012). With an increase in the
g-C3N4 loading to 0.7 wt%, the NaCl dismissal of the alter
ed layers diminished. This was due to the strong binding of the g-C3N4
nanosheets, which probably caused abandons on the membrane surface
and decayed the water penetration and salt dismissal.
The dense layer on the surface is a critical parameter in determining
Fig. 8. (a) Salt rejection of the membranes modified with different concen the salt separation of membranes. As shown in the SEM images, the
trations of g-C3N4. (b) Permeate water flux of the membranes modified with modified membranes had a thicker layer than those of the pristine
different concentrations of g-C3N4, membranes, indicating that the modified membranes could have more
selectivity and, as a result, higher salt separation. The water flux of the
modified membranes decreased as the loading of nanosheets increased,
which can be credited to the highly inflexible structure with cohered
nanosheets (Zarrabi et al., 2016).
Furthermore, owing to the hydrophilic character of the surface
amino groups, the flux of water particles penetrated the inside holes of
the g-C3N4 nanosheets with a loading quantity of 0.1 wt% (Dong et al.,
2014). The ideal pore size and thin thickness of the implanted g-C3N4
nanosheets might have improved water molecule permeability (Kim and
Nair, 2013). The water flux was also affected by the number of pores of
the selective layer of the membranes, and the flux slightly reduced with
a loading of 0.5 wt%. However, using 0.7- wt% g-C3N4 in the polymeric
matrix increased the membrane porosity, thereby increasing the water
flux (Wang et al., 2015).
The antifouling properties of the bare and C3N4-modified RO mem
branes were tested for 120 min in a solution containing 2000-ppm NaCl
and 100-ppm BSA (Fig. 9). According to the osmotic pressure, the salty
water permeate flux reduced, compared with that of pure water.
Owing to the nature of fouling for the membranes exposed to the
protein solution, the BSA solution flux was expected to be lower than
Fig. 9. The bsa/nacl solution flux and rejection using the membranes modified that for clean water.
with different concentrations of g- c3N4. Using 0.5- wt% C3N4 for the modified membranes resulted in better
antifouling due to the enhancement in membrane hydrophilicity and the
negatively charged surface of the membranes. Moreover, the generated
nanopore-structure C3N4 nanosheets on the surface layer prevented the
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Fig. 10. The fouling resistance for 0.5% C3N4-CA/PVA membranes, (b) the
ratio of irreversible fouling (Rir) and reversible fouling (Rr) to the total fouling
(Rt) of the 0.5% C3N4-CA/PVA membranes.
Fig. 12. Permeate flux behavior of 0.5% C3N4-CA/PVA membranes as a func
fouling agents from entering the membrane pores. The BSA molecules tion of time and fouling evaluation of BSA.
had a negative charge, which repelled charges on the membrane surface
comprising the negative C3N4 nanosheet (Chen et al., 2016). Using high modified membranes was significantly higher than that of neat mem
concentrations of C3N4 nanosheets led to a drop in BSA rejection for branes, indicating that with the intercalation of C3N4, Rr increasingly
membranes with C3N4 nanosheets of 0.7- wt% loading. became the major fouling factor. This demonstrated the increased
The antifouling mechanisms of RO membranes can be roughly clas antifouling performance of the C3N4-based membranes, with the 0.5- wt
sified into inert and active antifouling mechanisms. The first is divided % C3N4-CA/PVA exhibiting the best antifouling performance.
into fouling removal and fouling-resistant mechanisms, whereas the The separation of solutes using RO membranes is dependent on the
second includes release and contact antifouling mechanisms. In general, pore size. Here, we had a nonporous membrane with a dense layer, as
the antifouling mechanism is widely used and investigated based on the observed through SEM, with a loading amount of 0.5 wt%. Many model
introduced antifouling principles (electroneutrality, hydrophilicity, theories have been developed to illustrate the RO separation mecha
hydrogen-bond receptor, and nonhydrogen bond donor) (Ostuni et al., nism. Among these models, the dissolution–diffusion model has been
2001). Here, the antifouling mechanism depended on the hydration applied for dense and nonporous surfaces. This model was proposed by
layer effect and steric hindrance effect. The steric hindrance effect places Lonsdale (1972) and was suitable for the present study. In this model,
the diffusion process in a state of thermodynamic entropy reduction; the transmission rate depends on passing the solute and the solvent
therefore, the adsorption of solutes is inhibited (Shao et al., 2020). through the membrane under applied pressure in the form of molecular
The Rr and Rir were calculated to determine the easiest freely rein diffusion. The diffusion of the solute and solvent relies on the Fick law.
forced matter on the surface and the precipitation of matter inside the Therefore, the permeability of the tested solution depends on its solu
pores, respectively. Fig. 10a indicates a higher FRR as a better anti bility on the membrane surface. Here, the water molecules passed faster
fouling ability for 0.5- wt% C3N4-CA/PVA (Shi et al., 2019; Xu et al., than the solute molecules through the membrane, owing to the higher
2016; Zhang et al., 2017). The 0.5- wt% C3N4-CA/PVA membrane solubility diffusion coefficient of water.
exhibited a high FRR of 98%. Fig. 10b shows that a high Rr indicated
reversible fouling, which can be easily removed by hydraulic cleaning.
This membrane also exhibited the lowest irreversible fouling (Rir). The 3.9. Membrane stability and recyclability
neat membranes exhibited close Rir and Rr values, indicating that irre
versible and reversible fouling occurred. The Rr value of the membrane The stability of the 0.5- wt% C3N4-CA/PVA membranes was assessed
increased after C3N4 inclusion, but the Rir declined. The Rr of the C3N4- using water flux at diverse pH levels (3–11). As shown in Fig. 11, the
surface of the modified cellulosic membranes became positively charged
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Fig. 14. (a) Photocatalytic effect of the 0.5% C3N4-CA/PVA membrane on malachite green dye after Four cycles under visible-light irradiation (b) the vis – spectrum
for the MG dye at 0 min and for each cycle after 60 min visible-light irradiation.
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Table 3
Comparison of the C3N4 impact on the membrane performance in this study and others previous studies.
Polymer composition NPs Flux Solute Rejection% Ref.
Rejected
(LMH)
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E.S. Mansor et al. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management 19 (2023) 100760
Data availability Lonsdale, H.P.H., 1972. Reverse Osmosis Membrane Research. Plenum, New York,
pp. 43–57.
Lu, Y.-C., Chen, J., Wang, A.-J., Bao, N., Feng, J.-J., Wang, W., Shao, L., 2015. Facile
Data will be made available on request. synthesis of oxygen and sulfur co-doped graphitic carbon nitride fluorescent
quantum dots and their application for mercury(II) detection and bioimaging.
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