M Rezaei-DashtArzhandi, MH Sarrafzadeh, PS Goh, WJ Lau, AF Ismail, MA Mohamed
In this study, thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were fabricated by incorporating highly hydrophilic halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and self-synthesized graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanoparticles into polysulfone-based substrate and interfacially polymerized polyamide top layer, respectively. The TFN membranes were evaluated for their performance in forward osmosis (FO) applications. The XRD, ATR-FTIR, FESEM and TEM results confirmed the successful synthesis of g-C3N4 nanoparticles. The effects of nanomaterials incorporation were investigated in terms of membrane surface morphology, hydrophilicity and separation performance. When 0.05 wt/v% of g-C3N4 was added to the polyamide layer, the membrane surface contact angle was significantly reduced from 68° in the control membrane (TFN0.0) to <10° in the TFN membrane (TFN0.05), leading to high water flux of 18.88 L/m2·h …
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916418307148