Hydrophilicity improvement in polyphenylsulfone nanofibrous filtration membranes through addition of polyethylene glycol

Abstract

tNovel hydrophilic polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) nanofibrous membrane was prepared by electrospinningof the PPSU solution blended with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400). The influence of the PEG concen-tration on the membrane characteristics was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), watercontact angle measurement, and tensile test. Filtration performance of the membranes was investigatedby measurement of pure water flux (PWF) and determination of the rejection values of the pollutionindices during treatment of canned beans production wastewater. According to the results, blending thePPSU solution with 10 wt.% PEG 400 resulted in formation of a nanofibrous membrane with high porosityand increased mechanical strength which exhibited a low water contact angle of 8.9◦and high water fluxof 7920 L/m2h. Flux recovery of the mentioned membrane which was assessed by filtration of a solutioncontaining bovine serum albumin (BSA) was 83% indicating a noticeable antifouling property.