In the present work, by applying the phase inversion technique PSF/PEES (polysulfone/poly 1,4-phenylene ether ether sulfone) blended and PSF, PEES core membranes with and without incorporation of Montmorillonite (MMT) clay were synthesised with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the porogen and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent. Membrane performance was investigated on cross flow nanofiltration system for the removal of Congo Red (CR), Crystal Violet (CV), Methylene Blue (MB) dye and divalent salts. From the studies, it is found that the PSF/PEES blended membrane with the incorporation of MMT clay having 98.15% rejection for CR dye with higher flux. Contact angle analysis and water uptake study confirm the hydrophilic nature of membranes. The lowest contact angle and maximum water uptake capacity were obtained for the PSF/PEES blended membrane (membrane with 50% PSF and 50% PEES, with the addition of MMT). Furthermore, the developed membranes were evaluated for antifouling performance using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model foulant, achieving a flux recovery ratio (FRR) of approximately 66%. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM), Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and XRD analysis have been used for the morphological, surface, thermal and chemical characterization of prepared membranes, respectively. Based on the above characterisation studies, it was found that the PSF/PEES blended membrane incorporating MMT clay exhibited optimized performance.
Patel et al. (Fri,) studied this question.