The enhancement in dye removal and antifouling capability of PES nanofiltration membrane modified with fumarate-alumoxane nanoparticles

Fumarate-alumoxane nanoparticles (Fum-ANPs) incorporated PES nanofiltration membrane was fabricated via phase inversion to achieve favorable performance as the enhancement in the dye removal and antifouling capacity. FTIR spectra of the Fum-ANPs revealed that the carboxylate and hydroxyl functional groups were created on the surface of Fum-ANPs. The strong affinity of Fum-ANPs functional groups with water molecules made the membrane surface more hydrophilic. Hence, the modified membrane sample had a higher pure water flux than the bare one. Zeta potential data showed that the Fum-ANPs blended PES membrane was negatively charged at a pH value of 6, which is favorable for negatively charged solute rejection. The antifouling behavior of the membranes was analyzed using powder milk solution (8 g/L) in a dead-end filtration system. The obtained results demonstrated that the introduction of Fum-ANPs in the membrane matrix ameliorated the antifouling behavior of the resulting membrane. To further study the performance of the Fum-ANPs incorporated PES membrane, removal of Direct red 16 dye was tested. The removal efficiency of Direct red 16 with the Fum-ANPs blended PES membrane was 99% while it was 88.2% for the bare membrane sample.