Functional charcoal based nanomaterial with excellent colloidal property for fabrication of polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane with improved flux and fouling resistance.

In this work, charcoal based nanomaterial (charcoal-NM) with two-dimensional structure, high oxygen and nitrogen content (functional groups) and excellent colloidal dispersion property was synthesized and used to prepare ultrafiltration polyethersulfone (PES) mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs), via phase-inversion method. The charcoal-NM can be dispersed in water and organic solvents without sonication and its colloidal dispersion shows high stability for a long time. The influences of the charcoal-NM on morphology, antifouling behavior, pure water flux (PWF) and hydrophilicity of the fabricated MMMs were studied, and the optimum membrane was selected. Antifouling investigations were done by Bovine serum albumin (BSA) as fouling agent. It was found that incorporation of the charcoal-NM into the PES matrix causes formation of channels with vertical alignment in the membrane structure and enhancing the membrane hydrophilicity and therefore leads to improved flux recovery ratio (FRR), PWF and antifouling properties of the MMMs. The fabricated MMM with 0.6 wt% charcoal-NM was selected as the optimal membrane (with PWF of 410.16 LMH, FRR of 95.43% and BSA rejection of 95.89%). This work showed that the charcoal-NM with low cost and excellent dispersion property can be used as an effective nanofiller for MMMs preparation for environmental applications. [Display omitted] • Charcoal based nanomaterial (charcoal-NM) was synthesized and used as nanofiller. • Charcoal-NM with abundant O and N containing functional groups showed high hydrophilicity. • Charcoal-NM could be dispersed in solvent easily without sonication and modification. • Ultrafiltration polyethersulfone/charcoal-NM MMMs was fabricated, successfully. • The fabricated membranes exhibited enhanced water flux and antifouling properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]