Membrane surface modification is often utilized to combat membrane fouling, i.e., the
deterioration of membrane performance with time. Among many modification methods,
the effect of coating the surface of a commercial membrane with electrospun nanofibers
on the membrane performance has received little attention.
In this work, a commercial polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration membrane was
modified by electrospinning PVDF hydrophobic nanofibers for different time periods, i.e.,
25min, 125min, and 250min, and its effect on the filtration performance was investigated.
It was found that coating with the electrospun nanofiber layer enhanced the pure water
permeation (PWP) flux. While the fouling of electrospun PES (EPES) membranes was
more severe when they filtered Ottawa River (OR) Water or protein solutions, their final
flux was still higher than that of the PES membrane. The membranes were further
characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurement and
pore size and pore size distribution. The relationship between these characteristics and
the membrane performance was discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/37932 |
| Date | 30 July 2018 |
| Creators | Zoka, Ladan |
| Contributors | Narbaitz, Roberto M., Matsuura, Takeshi |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.1057 seconds