Composite membranes of cellulose–mesoporous silica: optimization of membrane fabrication and adsorption capacity

Abstract In this work, we produced composites of mesoporous silica synthesized in-situ on never-dried bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp fibers with the aim of providing cost-effective depth filters, having high flux, and adsorptivity. The mesoporous silica loading for the produced samples was in the range of 12–35 wt%. The performance of double-layer membranes was studied for the adsorption of charged molecules. The best nanofibrillated cellulose-pulp-mesoporous silica membrane adsorbed 1160 mg/m 2 of methylene blue and had a flux of 10 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 . The nanofibrillated cellulose layer supported the pulp-mesoporous silica layer and improved the adsorptivity of the pulp-mesoporous silica depth filter layer by controlling flux. The membranes showed non-linear-pseudo-first-order adsorption kinetics and non-linear Freundlich isotherm for methylene blue adsorption. The nanofibrillated cellulose-pulp-mesoporous silica membrane was modified for metanil yellow adsorption by adding polyamide amine-epichlorohydrin resin. The best metanil yellow saturated adsorption capacity was 9400 mg/m 2 . The nanofibrillated cellulose-pulp-mesoporous silica depth filter without modification with a polyelectrolyte also had 92% and 94% heavy metal removal of 20 mg of Cu 2+ and Pb 2+ ions, respectively. The novel pulp-mesoporous silica composite membrane, with high adsorption capacity and manufactured by lower embodied energy of cellulose fiber, can significantly lower large-scale depth filter production costs due to the elimination of cellulose pre-treatment for the depth filter layer. The reusability performance in the fifth cycle, after four cycles of metanil yellow adsorption and desorption, was 5.2 mg/g, which was stabilized from the 3rd to 5th cycles. This suggests the suitability of these membranes for industrial applications.