Improvement in dye and lead removal efficiency of PES membranes by blending sulfur containing adsorbent nanomaterials

The study examines the synthesis and characterization of novel Fe3O4@SiO2@PrEDAS nanoparticles (NP) as a magnetic adsorbent and its application in polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fabrication using the phase inversion method by adding it into the membrane dope solution at different concentrations. The efficiency of Fe3O4@SiO2@PrEDAS adsorbent was evaluated by batch adsorption of Pb(II). The performance of the modified membranes was investigated by determining the pure water flux (PWF), bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection, Pb(II) removal, dye rejection, and antifouling characteristics. Considering the results, it was observed that the NP is an effective adsorbent for Pb(II) due to its sulfur content at an appropriate pH. At pH 8, for a solution of Pb(II) with 1 mg.L−1 concentration, Pb(II) removal was found to be 91.6 %. When assessing the membrane study results, the hydrophilic structure of Fe3O4@SiO2@PrEDAS increased the hydrophilic properties of the produced membranes. 2 % NP-containing membrane showed the highest PWF and BSA flux with 358.6 and 144.7 Lm−2.h−1, respectively. All the membranes produced showed high BSA rejection, exceeding 99 %. Also, the Pb(II) rejection rate was measured at 98.5 % in the 2 % NP membrane with the flux of 347.3 Lm−2.h−1 because of the complexation affinity of sulfur with Pb(II). Furthermore, all membranes showed high dye rejection, with around 97 % for reactive black 5 and 99 % for reactive red 120.