Dual-functional ultrafiltration nano-enabled PSf/PVA membrane for the removal of Congo red dye

Abstract The disposal of industrial effluents containing dyes in wastewater streams is a serious environmental concern due to their synthetic origin and complex molecular structure making these compounds difficult to biodegrade. In this work, dual functional PSf/PVA membranes, modified by separately incorporating silica and ZnO nanoparticles, were fabricated for the removal of Congo red dye in aqueous solutions. Removal efficiency was tested using a dead end filtration setup. It was found that theremoval mechanism of the dye molecules was through adsorption and rejection. The highest dye removal capacity (53.5%) was achieved by PSf/PVA/ZnO (0.5 w.t. %) membrane. The removal capacity of the membranes decreased during reusability studies. The highest removal capacity obtained at the second cycles was 31.1%. This study shows that membranes that have a re-usabilitypotential and have a dual removal mechanism can be fabricated by incorporating silica and ZnO nanoparticles.