This paper presents a comprehensive study of the performance of a newly developed titania nanotube incorporated RO membrane for endocrine-disrupting compound (EDC) removal at a low concentration. EDCs are known as an emerging contaminant, and if these pollutants are not properly removed, they can enter the water cycle and reach the water supply for residential use, causing harm to human health. Reverse osmosis (RO) has been known as a promising technology to remove EDCs. However, there is a lack of consensus on their performance, especially on the feed concentrations of EDC that vary from one source to another. In this study, polyamide thin-film composite (PA TFC) membrane was incorporated with one-dimensional titania nanotube (TNT) to mitigate trade-off between water permeability and solute rejection of EDC. The characterization indicated that the membrane surface hydrophilicity has been greatly increased with the presence of TNT. Using bisphenol A (BPA) and caffeine as model EDC, the removal efficiencies of the pristine TFC and thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were evaluated. Compared to TFC membrane, the membrane modified with 0.01% of TNT exhibited improved permeability of 50% and 49% for BPA and caffeine, respectively. A satisfactory BPA rejection of 89.05% and a caffeine rejection of 97.89% were achieved by the TNT incorporated TFN membranes. Furthermore, the greater hydrophilicity and smoother surface of 0.01 TFN membrane led to lower membrane fouling tendency under long-term filtration.
Keywords: bisphenol A; caffeine; endocrine-disrupting compound; thin-film composite membrane; titania nanotube.