| Polysulfone (PSF) membranes have been widely used as UF membranes in water and wastewater treatment for their low cost, superior film forming ability, good mechanical and anticompaction properties. However their hydrophobic nature that often results in severe membrane fouling and decline of permeability and energy utilization. Many studies of modification of PSF membranes have been made to enhance their hydrophilicity with TiO2 nanoparticles which is an excellent inorganic modification agent.In this paper, in order to overcome the agglomeration of nanoparticles in membranes, polymer chains of HEMA were grown from TiO2 by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) process in methanol to enhance the dispersibility of TiO2 in PSF membranes. The hybrid polysulfone (PSF) membranes blending with different ratios of nanoparticles were prepared via phase inversion induced by immersion precipitation technique. The performance of modified particles and the structure and characteristic of membranes were explored.FTIR analysis was used to further confirm the success of modification on TiO2 (T).The dispersibility of TiO2-g-HEMA (HT) nanoparticles in organic solvents was promoted. SEM photographs show that the spherical macrovoids were suppressed and the reunion of nanoparticles was greatly reduced in membrane section and surface by adding HT particles. Compared with T nanoparticles, uniform dispersion was observed on the EDS images of HT membrane. With the increasing dosage of nanoparticles, the flux of pure water, porosity, mean pore size and antifouling characteristics of membranes were increased, and attained its maximum at the HT dosage of 2.0 wt%. Its pure water flux was 148.77 Lm-2 h-1, porocity was 78%, mean pore size was 23.09 nm and contact angle was 71.75° Membrane pollution resistance and recyclable potential were enhanced too. The experimental results show that the HT nanoparticles could improve the hydrophilic of PSF membrane effectively. |
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