ABSTRACT Polymer composites were prepared by in situ incorporation of sodium montmorillonite (NaMMT) and TiO 2 into a growing terpolymer during polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN), N ‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (VP), and acrylic acid (AA). Several composites were formulated by altering the AN: VP: AA molar ratios and weight percentages of NaMMT and TiO 2 fillers. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were prepared from these composites by phase inversion of their dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) solutions in water. The composite membranes were characterized and used for removal of a cationic dye, methylene blue (MB), from water in the presence of a polyelectrolyte sodium polyacrylate (NaPA) using polymer enhanced UF (PEUF). The effect of copolymer compositions, wt.% of clay and TiO 2 , and the concentration of the NaPA on flux and dye rejection were studied. The unfilled M 20 copolymer membrane containing 20 M% of VP+AA and the same filled membrane containing 1 wt.% clay and 1 wt.% TiO 2 exhibited a flux (L·m −2 ·h −1 )/rejection (%) of 135.67/93.7 and 146.7/95, respectively, from a feed of 0.15 mmol·L −1 MB in the presence of 0.3 mmol·L −1 NaPA, at a transmembrane pressure of 0.2 MPa. The filled membrane showed 94% degradation of 0.15 mmol·L −1 MB for 100 min exposure to sunlight with a first order rate constant of 0.0054 min −1 .
Samanta et al. (Mon,) studied this question.