Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), School and Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Skudai 81310, Johor, Malaysia
  • 3 Departments of Food and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Departments of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 5 Departments of Chemical Engineering, Segi University, Kota Damansara Selangor 47810, Malaysia
Polymers (Basel), 2020 Mar 03;12(3).
PMID: 32138186 DOI: 10.3390/polym12030549

Abstract

This study focused on developing a hydrophilic hybrid polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-polyethylene glycol (PEG) hollow membrane by incorporating Nano-magnesium oxide (NMO) as a potent antifouling mediator. The Nano-hybrid hollow fibers with varied loading of NMO (0 g; 0.25 g; 0.50 g; 0.75 g and 1.25 g) were spun through phase inversion technique. The resultants Nano-hybrid fibers were characterized and compared based on SEM, EDX, contact angle, surface zeta-potential, permeability flux, fouling resistance and color rejection from palm oil mill effluent (POME). Noticeably, the permeability flux, fouling resistance and color rejection improved with the increase in NMO loading. PVDF-PEG with 0.50 g-NMO loading displayed an outstanding performance with 198.35 L/m2·h, 61.33 L/m2·h and 74.65% of water flux, POME flux and color rejection from POME, respectively. More so, a remarkable fouling resistance were obtained such that the flux recovery, reversible fouling percentage and irreversible fouling percentage remains relatively steady at 90.98%, 61.39% and 7.68%, respectively, even after 3 cycles of continuous filtrations for a total period of 9 h. However, at excess loading of 0.75 and 1.25 g-NMO, deterioration in the flux and fouling resistance was observed. This was due to the agglomeration of nanoparticles within the matrix structure at the excessive loading.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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