Enhanced the antifouling and antibacterial performance of PVC / ZnO‐CMC nanoparticles ultrafiltration membrane

Abstract Inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) have been employed in modification for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane intrinsic hydrophobicity. Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), a natural organic matter, was used to relieve the agglomeration of zinc oxide (ZnO) NPs in the membrane matrix. In this paper, ZnO‐CMC NPs were successfully prepared via co‐precipitation approach, blended with PVC membranes, and the effect of ZnO‐CMC NPs for the membrane properties was studied. The SEM and EDX confirmed excellent dispersion of ZnO‐CMC NPs on the membrane surface. The enhanced hydrophilicity, porosity and inter‐connected finger‐like strcture of modified membranes confirmed by water contact angle and SEM. In addition, pure water flux of PVC/ZnO‐CMC composite membrane was 107.36 L m −2 h −1 (PVC/ZnO‐CMC (0.25 wt%)), which was higher than that of neat PVC membrane (83.11 L m −2 h −1 ). Importantly, the modified membranes exhibits lower static BSA adsorbtion because of the improved hydrophilicity, and a higher flux recovery rate (>90%) after three sequential filtration cycles. The antibacterial behavior of PVC/ZnO‐CMC membrane was tested simply using Escherichia coli , and the results indicated that all composite membranes possess excellent antibacterial properties. Our work presents PVC/ZnO‐CMC NPs composite membrane a promising future in wastewater treatment and antibacterial application.