Development of thin-film composite membranes via radical grafting with methacrylic acid/ ZnO doped TiO2 nanocomposites

The surface nanostructure of polyamide thin film composite membrane PA(TFC) has been improved for reverse osmosis water desalination using synthesized (ZnO/TiO2) nanocomposites (NCs) incorporated into the hydrophilic methacrylic acid (MAA) grafting solution. The membrane modification has been achieved using PA(TFC) functionalized with (ZnO/TiO2) NCs. The synthesized (ZnO/TiO2) NCs and membrane surface properties were characterized using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Contact angle (CA). Additionally, membrane performances have been evaluated. The preliminary results indicate that the (ZnO/TiO2) NCs are considerably developing the membrane performances in terms of water flux, salt rejection, mechanical properties, fouling resistances, stability in acidic-alkaline solutions and bio-antifouling properties of the PA(TFC) membranes. The (ZnO/TiO2/PMAA)-g-PA(TFC) NCs membrane showed salt rejection of 96.8% and water flux of 33.3 L/m2·h using15 bar applied pressure and a saline NaCl solution of 2000 mg/L. Furthermore, the modified membrane has greatly enhanced the fouling resistance of the Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) as a potential fouling and inhibits microbial attachment and biofilm growing onto the membrane surfaces using E. coli as a foulant model.