Fabrication of a hybrid ultrafiltration membrane based on MoS2 modified with dopamine and polyethyleneimine

Xin Wen; Can He; Yuyan Hai; Xiaofan Liu; Rui Ma; Jianyu Sun; Xue Yang; Yunlong Qi; Jingyun Chen; Hui Wei

doi:10.1039/d1ra03697a

Fabrication of a hybrid ultrafiltration membrane based on MoS₂ modified with dopamine and polyethyleneimine

RSC Adv. 2021 Aug 2;11(42):26391-26402. doi: 10.1039/d1ra03697a. eCollection 2021 Jul 27.

Authors

Xin Wen¹, Can He², Yuyan Hai², Xiaofan Liu², Rui Ma², Jianyu Sun², Xue Yang², Yunlong Qi², Jingyun Chen², Hui Wei²

Affiliations

¹ College of Geology and Environment, Xi'an University of Science and Technology Xi'an 710054 China.
² National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy Beijing 102211 China can.he.a@chnenergy.com.cn.

Abstract

The hydrophobicity of ultrafiltration membranes is the main cause of membrane fouling and reduced permeability, so it is necessary to improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling performance of ultrafiltration membrane materials. MoS₂ nanoparticles that were modified with polydopamine (PDA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI), named MoS₂-PDA-PEI, were added to fabricate a polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane (PES/MoS₂-PDA-PEI) for the first time. The effects of modified MoS₂ nanoparticles on membrane performance were clarified. The results indicated that the permeability, rejection, and anti-fouling capability of the hybrid PES/MoS₂-PDA-PEI membrane have been improved compared with the pristine PES membrane. When the content of MoS₂-PDA-PEI nanoparticles in the membrane is 0.5%, the pure water flux of the hybrid membrane reaches 364.03 L m^-2 h^-1, and the rejection rate of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and humic acid (HA) is 96.5% and 93.2% respectively. The flux recovery rate of HA reached 97.06%. As expected, the addition of MoS₂-PDA-PEI nanoparticles promotes the formation of the porous structure and improves the hydrophilicity of the membrane, thereby improving its antifouling performance.