Electrospun Membranes for Water Filtration

Water scarcity has become one of the global systemic risks, prompting the development of more efficient filtration technology. The demand for clean drinking water is fundamental for human life and it has sparked immense interest in production of high efficient filtration devices which employ advanced functional nanosized materials such as nanofibers. Recently, increased attention has been given to low cost membrane materials such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers for water filtration. In this study, electrospun PAN nanofibrous membranes were functionalized in order to improve the mechanical properties, and anti-bacterial and water filtration performance of the membranes. Morphological analysis revealed that the membranes featured a structural hierarchy comprising a layer of highly porous structure of nanofibrous PAN membranes and a less fibrous and thinner layer of Cs coating. Addition of the Cs layer increases the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the membranes. Results acquired from water permeability test indicated that the bi-layer membranes possessed adequate transport properties for typical membrane applications. Furthermore, the additional Cs layer and significantly improved the heavy metal ion adsorption performance of the PAN membranes. Moreover, the efficiency of membranes for bacteria filtration, parameterizes by the log reduction value is ۲ orders of magnitude higher than PAN membranes, while the efficiency of these membranes for antibacterial action (i.e. in terms of log reduction value) is ۶ orders of magnitude higher than PAN membranes. These results indicate the membranes are structurally more stable than PAN membranes, better at bacteria removal during the filtration process and better at self-cleaning (i.e. membrane biofouling resistance) than PAN membranes, signifying the potential of these membranes for water filtration applications.

کلیدواژه ها:

electrospinning ، water filtration ، antibacterial ، heavy metal adsorption