TY - JOUR
T1 - Simplified in-situ tailoring of cross-linked self-doped sulfonated polyaniline (S-PANI) membranes for nanofiltration applications
AU - Alali Alhweij, Hassan
AU - Emanuelsson, Emma Anna Carolina
AU - Shahid, Salman
AU - Wenk, Jannis
N1 - Funding Information:
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.
Funding Information:
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.
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Acidity
KW - Coagulation bath
KW - Cross-linked
KW - Nanofiltration
KW - Sulfonated polyaniline
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111187072&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119654
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119654
M3 - Article
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 637
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
M1 - 119654
ER -