Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene/chitosan blend membranes: Preparation, characterization and performance for the separation of heavy metals

In the present work, an attempt has been made to prepare new blend membranes with different compositions of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and chitosan (CHS) on polyethersulfone (PES) substrate membrane. The new membranes are characterized using, FTIR–ATR, XRD, SEM, EDXA, TGA and swelling behavior. These membranes are used to separate mercury and sodium ions from aqueous solutions at different operating conditions. The results showed that the maximum rejections of mercury and sodium ions are 96.25% and 89.74% for ABS membrane, respectively, for 5 ppm feed concentration and 16 L/min feed flow rate. CS membrane (CHS:ABS = 100:0) gave highest permeate volume flux among all the blended membranes.