Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
The escalating presence of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater necessitates the investigation of effective tertiary treatment process. Forward osmosis (FO) emerges as an effective non-pressurized membrane process, however, for the effective implementation of FO systems, the development of fouling-resistance FO membranes with high-performance is essential. This study focuses on the integration of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH2 as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) nanocomposites in thin film composite (TFC) FO membranes, harnessing the synergistic power of hybrid nanoparticles in FO membranes. The results showed that the addition of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH2 in the aqueous phase during polyamide formation changed the polyamide surface structure, and enhanced membranes’ hydrophilicity by 44%. The water flux of the modified FO membrane incorporated with 0.1 wt% MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH2 increased by 67% and the reverse salt flux decreased by 22% as in comparison with the control membrane. Moreover, the modified membrane showed improved antifouling behavior against both organic foulant and MPs. The MWCNT/UiO-66-NH2 membrane experienced 35% flux decline while the control membrane experienced 65% flux decline. This proves that the integration of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticles into TFC FO membranes is a viable approach in creating advanced FO membranes with high antifouling propensity with potential to be expanded further to other membrane applications.
Keywords
[RSTDPub], Forward osmosis, Fouling, Metal-organic frameworks, Microplastics, Multi-walled carbon nanotubes
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
7-1-2024
Article Number
142180
Volume
359
PubMed ID
38679179
Publication Title
Chemosphere
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Engineering
Funding Information
The authors express their gratitude for the financial support provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC DECRA G1005399) and the generous support from the AMP Foundation for Dr. Masoumeh Zargar. Additionally, the ECU Vice Chancellor PhD Scholarship for Mitra Golgoli is acknowledged.
Funding received from the Australian Research Council (ARC)
G1005399
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Content Type
Full object
Recommended Citation
Golgoli, M., Farahbakhsh, J., Najafi, M., Khiadani, M., Johns, M. L., & Zargar, M. (2024). Resilient forward osmosis membranes against microplastics fouling enhanced by MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH2 hybrid nanoparticles. Chemosphere, 359, Article 142180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142180
Comments
This is an Authors Accepted Manuscript version of an article published by Elsevier in Chemosphere. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142180
Golgoli, M., Farahbakhsh, J., Najafi, M., Khiadani, M., Johns, M. L., & Zargar, M. (2024). Resilient forward osmosis membranes against microplastics fouling enhanced by MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH2 hybrid nanoparticles. Chemosphere, 359, 142180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142180