Assessment the performance and morphological structures of asymmetric PES/surfactant membranes for nanofiltration of dyes wastewater

Abstract

In this study, an asymmetric PES/surfactant based nanofiltration membrane was prepared via simple dry/wet phase inversion technique. A newly dope formulations consisting of different surfactants and polymer concentrations ranging from 17wt% to 21wt% were developed. The effect  of  these  parameters on  dyes  performance  in  terms  of  dyes  flux,  rejection  and morphological structure were examined. Experimental data showed that at different ranges of polymer concentration, NFS membranes results low permeation flux of dyes ranging from 9.256 L/m²h to 14.315 L/m²h at 4 bars of operating pressure. Significantly, the addition of surfactant as additives into the membranes was found to cause the increasing of dyes flux and rejection up to 79.698 L/m²h and 99.5% respectively. Moreover, morphological study shows that the fabricated membranes were having of fine morphological structures.

Keywords: nanofiltration; surfactant; flux; rejection; morphological structure