Efficient removal of dyes from aqueous solution: the potential of cellulose nanocrystals to enhance PES nanocomposite membranes

Abstract

A novel nanocomposite membrane produced with polyether sulfone (PES) and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) was developed for efficient removal of dye. The nanocomposite membranes were prepared using PES and different contents of CNCs (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8 and 1.0 wt%). The morphologies, surface properties, permeability, rejection and fouling analysis were carefully examined. The dye solution flux of PES/CNC membrane significantly increased with an increase of CNC content of the membrane casting solution, maximized to 4.13 times higher compared with dye solution flux of pristine PES membrane. Dye rejections were achieved as 95.8 and 93.6% respectively for an addition of 0.5 and 1% of CNCs into membrane casting solution. Moreover, the antifouling properties of PES membranes improved with adding CNCs due to the hydrophilic character of CNCs. Consequently, the obtained results showed that synthesized PES/CNC membranes can be effectively used for the removal of dyes due to their performance. However, the production cost of CNC is main challenge to be addressed for full-scale application.