Abstract

Sulfonated polyaniline (S-PANI) membranes could have wide-ranging applications due to their electrical tunability, antifouling behaviour and chlorine resistance. However, S-PANI membranes below the ultrafiltration (UF) separation range have not been successfully established. This study presents a scalable approach to produce the first in-situ cross-linked S-PANI membranes at nanofiltration (NF) range. S-PANI membranes were produced by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS). The presence of sulfonic groups as polymer cross-linking anchors and controlling the coagulation bath's acidic strength resulted in instant stabilisation of the selective layer, which hindered the solvent/non-solvent exchange rate. This enabled the production of a tailored membrane morphology with a dense skin layer, suppressed macro-voids, reduced porosity, enhanced tensile strength, increased hydrophilicity and solvent stability. S-PANI membranes cast in 3 M HCl(aq) with MWCO≈680 g mol−1 (sucrose octa-acetate) showed a rejection of 99 % for PEG 1000 g mol−1 and 91–100 % for dye solution (MW range of 320–1017 g mol−1) compared to 34 % and 74–85 % rejection for a commercial fluoropolymer membrane (nominal MWCO 1000 g mol−1), respectively. The reported approach is simple and can be applied to design new classes of cross-linked solvent stable S-PANI NF membranes.
Original languageEnglish
Article number119654
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume637
Early online date24 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2021

Funding

H.A. was supported by a University of Bath research scholarship. The authors thank Matthew Jones and Simon Lewis for valuable discussion and the technicians' team at the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Bio-imaging lab at the University of Bath for support and advice. XPS data collection was performed at the EPSRC National Facility for XPS (?HarwellXPS?), operated by Cardiff University and UCL, under Contract No. PR16195.

Keywords

  • Acidity
  • Coagulation bath
  • Cross-linked
  • Nanofiltration
  • Sulfonated polyaniline

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Filtration and Separation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Simplified in-situ tailoring of cross-linked self-doped sulfonated polyaniline (S-PANI) membranes for nanofiltration applications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this