Affiliations 

  • 1 Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: jawaid@upm.edu.my
  • 3 Advanced Materials Research Group, Center of Hydrogen Energy, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Applied Medical Science, Community College, King Saud University, PO Box 10219, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 MoRe Research Örnsköldsvik AB, SE-891 22 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden; Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk 454080, Russia
Int J Biol Macromol, 2021 Dec 01;192:654-664.
PMID: 34655581 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.10.042

Abstract

In this study, poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) dual-layer membranes filled with 0-3 wt% cellulose nanowhisker (CNWs) were fabricated with aim to remove metal ions from wastewater. An integrated method was employed in the membrane fabrication process by combining water vapor-induced and crystallization-induced phase inversions. The membrane thickness was measured in between 11 and 13 μm, which did not pose significant flux deviation during filtration process. The 3% CNW filled membrane showed prominent and well-laminated two layers structure. Meanwhile, the increase in CNWs from 0 to 3% loadings could improve the membrane porosity (43-74%) but reducing pore size (2.45-0.54 μm). The heat resistance of neat membrane enhanced by 1% CNW but decreased with loadings of 2-3% CNWs due to flaming behavior of sulphated nanocellulose. Membrane with 3% CNW displayed the tensile strength (23.5 MPa), elongation at break (7.1%), and Young's modulus (0.75 GPa) as compared to other samples. For wastewater filtration performance, the continuous operation test showed that 3% CNW filled membrane exhibited the highest removal efficiency for both cobalt and nickel metal ions reaching to 83% and 84%, respectively. We concluded that CNWs filled dual-layer membranes have potential for future development in the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater streams.

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