Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment

Access to clean water for human use is a growing concern across the world with the ever-increasing human population. Treatment of wastewater to produce usable water is essential to meet future clean water demand. Separation and decontamination processes using membrane technologies have been implemen...

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Main Author:	Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	TP Chemical technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92043/1/ButhaynaNasserAliMSChE2020.pdf.pdf
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spelling	my-utm-ep.920432021-08-30T04:17:32Z Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment 2020 Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali TP Chemical technology Access to clean water for human use is a growing concern across the world with the ever-increasing human population. Treatment of wastewater to produce usable water is essential to meet future clean water demand. Separation and decontamination processes using membrane technologies have been implemented worldwide. Photocatalytic membrane is an emerging technology that is capable of simultaneously separating and degrading organic pollutants (e.g., humic acid (HA) and dyes) present in aqueous solution under UV-irradiation besides microorganism disinfection. In view of this, the main objective of this work is to fabricate and characterize a new type of nanocomposite nanofiber membrane by incorporating photocatalytic nanomaterials – titanium dioxide (TiO2) into a highly porous nanofiber made of UV-resistant polyetherimide (PEI). The nanofiber membrane was fabricated via an electrospinning method using a dope solution containing 15 wt% PEI dissolved in a mixed solvent of dimethylformamide (DMF)/n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) with ratio of 2:8. The top surface of nanofiber membrane was further modified by coating it with different TiO2 concentration (0.2 and 0.6 wt%) using electrospraying method. The properties of the TiO2-modified PEI nanofiber membranes were then analysed using scanning electron microscope (SEM), water contact angle (WCA) goniometer and tensile strength machine. Results showed that 0.2 wt% TiO2-modified PEI nanofiber displayed better behaviour by reducing WCA of unmodified nanofiber from 130.25° to 23.35° and improving water flux by 28%. Although the WCA of membrane was further reduced when a higher TiO2 amount (0.6 wt%) was used, the resultant nanofiber suffered from decreased ultimate strength and significant nanoparticles leaching. Using the best performing 0.2 wt% TiO2-modified PEI membrane, significant removal rate of Escherichia coli (99%) and humic acid (~80%) could be achieved along with 85% methylene blue degradation during photocatalytic process. The findings of this work provide an insight into the design of advanced nanocomposite nanofiber membrane for photocatalytic process. 2020 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92043/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92043/1/ButhaynaNasserAliMSChE2020.pdf.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:139027 masters Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle	TP Chemical technology Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
description	Access to clean water for human use is a growing concern across the world with the ever-increasing human population. Treatment of wastewater to produce usable water is essential to meet future clean water demand. Separation and decontamination processes using membrane technologies have been implemented worldwide. Photocatalytic membrane is an emerging technology that is capable of simultaneously separating and degrading organic pollutants (e.g., humic acid (HA) and dyes) present in aqueous solution under UV-irradiation besides microorganism disinfection. In view of this, the main objective of this work is to fabricate and characterize a new type of nanocomposite nanofiber membrane by incorporating photocatalytic nanomaterials – titanium dioxide (TiO2) into a highly porous nanofiber made of UV-resistant polyetherimide (PEI). The nanofiber membrane was fabricated via an electrospinning method using a dope solution containing 15 wt% PEI dissolved in a mixed solvent of dimethylformamide (DMF)/n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) with ratio of 2:8. The top surface of nanofiber membrane was further modified by coating it with different TiO2 concentration (0.2 and 0.6 wt%) using electrospraying method. The properties of the TiO2-modified PEI nanofiber membranes were then analysed using scanning electron microscope (SEM), water contact angle (WCA) goniometer and tensile strength machine. Results showed that 0.2 wt% TiO2-modified PEI nanofiber displayed better behaviour by reducing WCA of unmodified nanofiber from 130.25° to 23.35° and improving water flux by 28%. Although the WCA of membrane was further reduced when a higher TiO2 amount (0.6 wt%) was used, the resultant nanofiber suffered from decreased ultimate strength and significant nanoparticles leaching. Using the best performing 0.2 wt% TiO2-modified PEI membrane, significant removal rate of Escherichia coli (99%) and humic acid (~80%) could be achieved along with 85% methylene blue degradation during photocatalytic process. The findings of this work provide an insight into the design of advanced nanocomposite nanofiber membrane for photocatalytic process.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali
author_facet	Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali
author_sort	Al Ghafri, Buthayna Nasser Ali
title	Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
title_short	Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
title_full	Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
title_fullStr	Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
title_full_unstemmed	Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
title_sort	titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
granting_department	Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
publishDate	2020
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92043/1/ButhaynaNasserAliMSChE2020.pdf.pdf
_version_	1747818559324553216

Titanium dioxide coated polyetherimide photocatalytic nanofiber membrane for water treatment

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