Resilient forward osmosis membranes against microplastics fouling enhanced by MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH2 hybrid nanoparticles

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Chemosphere

Volume

359

PubMed ID

38679179

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Engineering

Funders

Edith Cowan University

Grant Number

G1005399

Comments

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

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.

DOI

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142180

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