Performance Enhancements of Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes through Blending with Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline Nanofibers

摘要

High-performance membranes for protein separation are of great interest. In this study, new type of polysulfone (PSf) composite ultrafiltration membranes are created by blending PSf with polyaniline (PANi) nanofibers and functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and then casting the mixture solutions via a well-developed non-solvent/solvent induced phase separation technique, using deionized water as the coagulation bath. The compositions, morphologies and properties of as-formed membranes are fully investigated. We demonstrate that membrane characteristics such as porosity, hydrophilicity, conductivity and thermal stability for PSf can be significantly enhanced with the incorporation of hydrophilic and conductive compositions of functionalized-MWNTs and PANi nanofibers. The composite membranes exhibit comparable bovine serum albumin (BSA) selectivities (89-93 vs. 92%) but much improved water fluxes (31.5-88.9 vs. 9.2 gfd/psi) against pure PSf membranes.