Fabrication of PES Modified by TiO2/Na2Ti3O7 Nanocomposite Mixed-Matrix Woven Membrane for Enhanced Performance of Forward Osmosis: Influence of Membrane Orientation and Feed Solutions

Ghadah M Al-Senani; Mervat Nasr; Mohamed Zayed; Sahar S Ali; Hind Alshaikh; Hanafy M Abd El-Salam; Mohamed Shaban

doi:10.3390/membranes13070654

Fabrication of PES Modified by TiO₂/Na₂Ti₃O₇ Nanocomposite Mixed-Matrix Woven Membrane for Enhanced Performance of Forward Osmosis: Influence of Membrane Orientation and Feed Solutions

Membranes (Basel). 2023 Jul 8;13(7):654. doi: 10.3390/membranes13070654.

Authors

Ghadah M Al-Senani¹, Mervat Nasr^{2

3}, Mohamed Zayed², Sahar S Ali⁴, Hind Alshaikh⁵, Hanafy M Abd El-Salam³, Mohamed Shaban^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
² Nanophotonics and Applications (NPA) Lab, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt.
³ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62514, Egypt.
⁴ Chemical Engineering and Pilot-Plant Department, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt.
⁵ Chemistry Department, Science and Arts College, Rabigh Campus, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 344, Jeddah 21911, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Madinah, P.O. Box 170, Madinah 42351, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Water treatment is regarded as one of the essential elements of sustainability. To lower the cost of treatment, the wastewater volume is reduced via the osmotic process. Here, mixed-matrix woven forward osmosis (MMWFO) PES membranes modified by a TiO₂/Na₂Ti₃O₇ (TNT) nanocomposite were fabricated for treating water from different sources. Various techniques were used to characterize the TNT nanocomposite. The crystal structure of TNT is a mix of monoclinic Na₂Ti₃O₇ and anorthic TiO₂ with a preferred orientation of (2-11). The SEM image shows that the surface morphology of the TNT nanocomposite is a forked nano-fur with varying sizes regularly distributed throughout the sample. The impact of TNT wt.% on membrane surface morphologies, functional groups, hydrophilicity, and performance was investigated. Additionally, using distilled water (DW) as the feed solution (FS), the effects of various NaCl concentrations, draw solutions, and membrane orientations on the performance of the mixed-matrix membranes were tested. Different water samples obtained from various sources were treated as the FS using the optimized PES/TNT (0.01 wt.%) MMWFO membrane. Using textile effluent as the FS, the impact of various NaCl DS concentrations on the permeated water volume was investigated. The results show that the MMWFO membrane generated with the TNT nanocomposite at a 0.01 wt.% ratio performed better in FO mode. After 30 min of use with 1 M NaCl and various sources of water as the FS, the optimized MMWFO membrane provided a steady water flow and exhibited antifouling behavior. DW performed better than other water types whenever it was used owing to its greater flow (136 LMH) and volume reduction (52%). Tap water (TW), textile industrial wastewater (TIWW), gray water (GW), and municipal wastewater (MW) showed volume reductions of 41%, 34%, 33%, and 31.9%, respectively. Additionally, when utilizing NaCl as the DS and TIWW as the FS, 1 M NaCl resulted in more permeated water than 0.25 M and 0.5 M, yet a higher volume reduction of 41% was obtained.

Keywords: PES/(TNT) nanocomposite MMW FO membrane; TiO2/Na2Ti3O7 nanocomposite (TNT); antifouling membrane; forward osmosis (FO); membrane (MMW); sustainability; volume reduction.

Grants and funding

PNURSP2023R67/Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R67), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.