Surface modified cellulose acetate membranes for the reactive retention of tetracycline

Abstract This paper presents a new method for the reactive retention of tetracycline from aqueous solutions. For this, cellulose acetate membranes were functionalized with aminopropyl triethoxysilane, followed by reaction of the reaming free amino groups with cyanuric chloride. The reactive retention process is based on passing through the membrane heated feed solution which contains tetracycline. The amino group from tetracycline will react with a chlorine atom from the cyanuric chloride. The synthesized materials were characterized by Scanning Electronic Microscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis, FT-IR and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, proving both the material synthesis and also the antibiotic bonding during the separation process. Retention studies were evaluated using UV–Vis Spectroscopy on pre-and post-membrane feed solutions. The water flux with pure water has also been conducted. The modified CA membrane showed an increase of the adsorption capacity from 16% to 88% and an improved permeability from 72 L·m−2·h−1 to 517.66 L·m−2·h−1 compared with pure CA membrane.