Hydrophilic modification through incorporation of nanoparticles in ultrafiltration membranes

Ultrafiltration membranes were prepared from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) blends by phase inversion method and modified separately through the incorporation of nano-Silicon dioxide (SiO2) and nano-Titanium dioxide (TiO2). The effects of variation of polymer blend ratios and nanoparticle (NP) concentrations on the properties and performance of membranes were studied. Compare to virgin blend membranes, NPs modified membranes displayed higher hydrophilicity, surface charge, lower surface roughness, higher water flux and better antifouling properties. Flux enhancement for 70:30 and 30:70 PAN-PVDF blend membranes at optimum nano-silica loading are 106% and 163.2% and at optimum nano-TiO2 loading 106% and 126.5 % respectively compared to virgin membranes. The flux recovery ratio values are 84.2%, 94.5% for nano-silica and 87.3% and 86.1% for nano-TiO2 modified 70:30 and 30:70 PAN-PVDF blend membranes respectively.