Journal Article

Engineering of Multifunctional Nanocomposite Membranes for Wastewater Treatment: Oil/Water Separation and Dye Degradation

Nasr, Emad Abouel, Taha, Mohamed, Mousa, Hamouda M, Mohamed, Ibrahim M. A., El-sadek, M. S. Abd, Mohamed, Mohamed A., Sayed, Mostafa M.

2023

Overview

Multifunctional membrane technology has gained tremendous attention in wastewater treatment, including oil/water separation and photocatalytic activity. In the present study, a multifunctional composite nanofiber membrane is capable of removing dyes and separating oil from wastewater, as well as having antibacterial activity. The composite nanofiber membrane is composed of cellulose acetate (CA) filled with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in a polymer matrix and dipped into a solution of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs). Membrane characterization was performed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and water contact angle (WCA) studies were utilized to evaluate the introduced membranes. Results showed that membranes have adequate wettability for the separation process and antibacterial activity, which is beneficial for water disinfection from living organisms. A remarkable result of the membranes’ analysis was that methylene blue (MB) dye removal occurred through the photocatalysis process with an efficiency of ~20%. Additionally, it exhibits a high separation efficiency of 45% for removing oil from a mixture of oil–water and water flux of 20.7 L.m−2 h−1 after 1 h. The developed membranes have multifunctional properties and are expected to provide numerous merits for treating complex wastewater.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Acetic acid / Antibacterial activity / Catalytic activity / Cellulose acetate / Color removal / Contact angle / Disinfection / Dyes / Efficiency / Egypt / Electron microscopy / Field emission microscopy / Fourier transforms / Investigations / Membrane separation / Membranes / Methylene blue / Microscopy / nanocomposite membrane / Nanocomposites / Nanofibers / Nanomaterials / Nanoparticles / oil/water separation / Oils & fats / Organic contaminants / Particle size / Photocatalysis / photocatalytic / Pollutants / Polymers / Purification / Radiation / Scanning electron microscopy / Semiconductors / Separation / Sewage / Spectrum analysis / Tetracycline / Tetracyclines / Titanium dioxide / Transmission electron microscopy / Wastewater treatment / Water pollution / Water treatment / Wettability / Zinc oxide / Zinc oxides