Study of TiO_2/PES-C ultrafiltration membranes

The paper studied the effects of TiO2 nanoparticles on the structure and performance of TiO2/PES-C UF membranes.The velocity of liquid liquid separation in the DMAc solution was slow.Meanwhile,the UF membranes exhibited high permeability and rejection.Compared to the neat PES-C UF membrane,the TiO2 nanoparticles could improve the water fluxes,BSA aqueous fluxes,hydrophilicity and antifouling property of the PES-C membrane.The morphologies of membrane surface and cross-section were examined by SEM.The high TiO2 concentration(≥5%) produces a considerable number of large surface pores.The fingerlike pores became run through at low TiO2 concentration and then the thickness of skin layer increased at high TiO2 concentration(≥5%).At 3% TiO2 content,the composite membranes held excellent water permeability,hydrophilicity,and good anti-fouling ability with almost unchanged retentions.However,high TiO2 content resulted in the performance decline of TiO2/PES-C membrane.The experimental results show that the composite UF membrane has good separation performance and offers a strong potential for possible use as a new type of anti-fouling UF membrane.