Multifunctional composite membranes incorporated by SiO2@CuFe2O4 nanocomposite for high dye removal, antibacterial and antifouling properties

A novel mixed-matrix-composite (MMC) membrane was prepared by incorporating a novel SiO2@CuFe2O4 nanocomposite with a tunable antibacterial property which is synthesized via hydrothermal method, into the pristine membrane structure, in order to achieve the high dye removal performance and antibacterial properties. The results indicated that adding SiO2@CuFe2O4 nanocomposite improved the hydrophilicity, antifouling, and antibacterial properties. The performance of the MMC membranes were evaluated in terms of pure water flux and dye rejection in the filtration process by use of two anionic dyes as the contaminants. The MMC membrane containing 1wt% SiO2@CuFe2O4 nanocomposite, the water flux was about 23 L m−2 h−1and the rejection values were approximately reached to 99% for the both anionic dyes. Also, during the long-term filtration test for stability investigation, the separation efficiencies were maintained with the values of 99.88% Direct blue 199 and 88.99% Acid blue 25 dyes, comparing with the initial time of the filtration performance. High antifouling properties of the MMC membranes, increased the flux recovery ratio (FRR) up to 95%, which is a significant improvement comparing with the neat PES membrane with the value of 65%. The MMC membranes exhibited the relatively high antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria via colony forming unit and disc diffusion methods.