Water Treatment Using PVC/TPU/PC Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes

In this study, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polycarbonate (PC) were electrospun in a blended form at different PC contents (10-50 wt.%) to serve as nanofiber membranes. The morphological studies done by SEM images demonstrated that the nanofiber membranes were electrospun without any bead defects in all conditions and the diameters of the nanofibers were in the range of 140-580 nm. The FTIR test also revealed the presence of all characteristic peaks of the polymers in the blended membrane. Further, contact angle (CA) tests showed that the increase of the PC content improved the hydrophilic properties of the membranes with the decrease of contact angle from 129 degrees to 80 degrees. The mechanical tests also revealed that TPU served a significant role in the elastic behavior and tensile strength of the membranes. The tensile strength and strain of electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENFMs) were in the range of 3.5-10.3 MPa and 41-56%, respectively. The filtration efficiency of ENMs was evaluated using the submerged system with the humic acid (HA) solution. The obtained results showed that the more porous structure (PC content: 10 wt.%) had higher initial permeation flux (110 L.m(-2).h(-1)), but all samples reached a constant flux (16.44 L.m(-2).h(-1)) after 240 min. Measurement of the fouling parameters also revealed that the irreversible fouling ratio (IFR) of the membranes was improved by increasing the PC content. The results also demonstrated the better antifouling performance for the blended membrane with 50 wt.% of polycarbonate (flux recovery ratio, FRR = 92.6%). The HA rejection measurement also exhibited the enhanced rejection of the foulants (99.3%) by the membrane containing a higher PC content (50 wt.%). The results showed that the PVC/TPU/PC nanofiber membrane at PC content of 50 wt.% had an excellent filtration performance and could be used as a candidate for water treatment purposes.