Adsorptive removal of arsenic from aqueous solution by a PVDF/zirconia blend flat sheet membrane

► A PVDF/zirconia blend flat sheet membrane was prepared for adsorptive removal of arsenic. ► The membrane could effectively remove arsenic under both batch adsorption and dynamic filtration. It can be used for efficient adsorption removal of arsenate in a wide pH range, and the optimal pH is from 3.0 to 8.0. The maximum arsenate adsorption capacity is 21.5 mg/g, comparable to most of the adsorbent available in the market. The regenerated membrane remains the high adsorptive removal capacity for arsenate. ► The presence of other anionic ion, like fluoride, does not significantly affect the arsenate uptake, which means the blend membrane has high selective adsorption towards arsenate. ► The addition of zirconia increased the hydrophilicity and porosity of the membrane. ► The adsorptive removal mechanism is a ligand-exchange process between As(V) ions and the hydroxyl ions present on the surface of membrane.