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. 2023 Sep 25;13(10):810.
doi: 10.3390/membranes13100810.

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

Hamouda M Mousa  1   2 , Mostafa M Sayed  3 , Ibrahim M A Mohamed  4 , M S Abd El-Sadek  5   6 , Emad Abouel Nasr  7 , Mohamed A Mohamed  8 , Mohamed Taha  9
Affiliations

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

Hamouda M Mousa et al. Membranes (Basel). .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: antibacterial activity; nanocomposite membrane; oil/water separation; photocatalytic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustrative diagram shows nanocomposite membrane fabrication steps: electrospinning setup component, dip coating of TiO2 NPs, membrane drying, and calcination.
Figure 2
Figure 2
FESEM analyses show membrane morphology: (a) CA, (b) CA/ZnO NPs, (c) CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs, and (d) calcined CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a,b) Characterization of CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs membrane of single nanofiber, (c,d) calcined CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs showed TEM images of composite nanoparticles and EDS mapping.
Figure 4
Figure 4
FTIR analysis of the different developed membranes’ conditions.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(i) Membrane wettability using WCA: (a) CA, (b) CA/ZnO NPs, and (c) CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NP. (ii) antibacterial test of the control and CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs membrane.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Membranes’ photocatalytic performance using MB dye. Control is referring to MB degradation without any catalyst materials.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Plots of ln(C/C0) versus time for the prepared photocatalyst membrane against degradation of MB.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Photocatalytic process and electron transport of a composite CA/ZnO @ TiO2 membrane under direct sunlight.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Membrane’s water flux and oil separation efficiency of modified CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs membrane.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Optical microscope photographs of oily wastewater before and after separation were recorded for three distinct membranes. (a) oil/water emulsion before separation (b) CA, (c) CA/ZnO NPs, and (d) CA/ZnO @ TiO2 NPs. Microscopic images at a magnification of 10×.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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