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In this study, an attempt was made to pretreat seawater using polyethersulfone (PES) mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) incorporated with titania-based binary metal oxides. Two different titania-based binary metal oxides were prepared, namely titania-zirconia (TiZr) and titania-zinc oxide (TiZn). The influence of hydrophilic and negatively charged sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) polymer as additive of PES MMMs was also studied. Morphological and elemental analysis revealed that both ZrO2 and ZnO were well dispersed in the as-prepared binary metal oxide TiZr and TiZn, respectively.. Thermogravimetry analysis indicated the good compatibility of TiZr and TiZn with the SPEEK/PES polymer. The binary metal oxide incorporated SPEEK/ PES MMMs exhibited improved hydrophilic properties with a low water contact angle of 57 ± (0.6). SPEEK/PES MMMs incorporated with 0.5 wt% TiZr exhibited the highest permeability of 3.11 × 10−7 ± (0.2) m/skPa. Seawater pretreatment performance of membranes evaluated using natural organic matters containing high salinity feed water. TiZr and TiZn incorporated SPEEK/ PES MMMs exhibited 95% rejection for humic acid. SPEEK/PES MMMs loaded with 0.5 wt% TiZr also showed the highest water flux and 87% water recovery within 90 min of seawater filtration. Both PES/SPEEK/TiZr and PES/SPEEK/ TiZn MMMs exhibited superior antibacterial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thepresence of humic acid (HA) in groundwater threatens aquaticlife and human health; for the effective treatment of such pollutants,an advanced/hybrid method is essential. In this work, zirconia embeddedin poly(ether sulfone) (ZrePES) mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) hasbeen studied for the removal of HA. Chemical precipitation methodwas utilized to prepare nano zirconia (ZrO2). The modifiedPES membrane with nano ZrO2of 2.5 and 5 wt % were studied.Contact angle measurement and protein rejection studies showed anenhanced hydrophilicity with increase in pore radius for ZrePES membranes.Also, the addition of nano ZrO2altered the membrane morphologyand improved pure water permeability. Batch adsorption experimentsrevealed that HA adsorption efficiency was higher at pH 2 for ZrePESmembranes. The HA uptake capacity of 50.5 mg/g was observed for the5 wt % ZrePES membrane. Experimental adsorption results showed goodagreement with adsorption kinetics model. Ultrafiltration studiesshowed HA rejection was up to 97% for 5 wt % ZrePES membrane. Theeffects of natural substances and their impact on HA rejection inZrePES membrane were also analyzed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]