Incorporation of layered double hydroxide nanomaterials in thin film nanocomposite nanofiltration membrane for desalination application

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Norhaniza Yusof, Muhammad Hanis Bin Tajuddin, Wan Norharyati Wan Salleh, Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Nur Hanis Hayati Hairom and Nurasyikin Misdan

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Malaysia

: J Nanomater Mol Nanotechnol

Abstract

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Thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane with copper-aluminium layered double hydroxides (LDH) incorporated into polyamide (PA) selective layer has been developed for desalination application. 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 wt% of LDH were dispersed in the trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in n-hexane as an organic solution and embedded into PA layer during interfacial polymerization with piperazine. The fabricated membranes were further characterized to evaluate its morphological structure and membrane surface hydrophilicity. The TFN membranes performance were evaluated with monovalent (NaCl) and divalent salts (MgSO4; MgCl2 and Na2SO4) removal and compared with thin film composite (TFC). The morphological structures of TFN membranes were altered and the surface hydrophilicity was enhanced by the addition of LDH. The nanofiltration separation performances showed that TFN membrane with the LDH-NO3 nanofillers loading of 0.1 has the highest rejection towards all salts Na2SO4 (97.6%), MgSO4 (95.4%), MgCl2 (95.6%) and NaCl (75.2%). Based on the results, it could be postulated that the rejection of each membrane was influenced by their surface charged after the addition of LDH-NO3. Most importantly, the modification by LDH-NO3 nanofillers without disturbing the existing procedure can serve as a promising solution to produce high-performance for TFN membrane in nanofiltration process.

Biography

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E-mail: norhaniza@petroleum.utm.my