Selective removal of heavy metals from saline water by nanofiltration

Polyethylenimine (PEI) cross-linked P84 nanofiltration membranes were successfully developed through a facile stirring cross-linking method. The separation performance of the membrane was tailored by changing the concentration of the P84 casting solution. A systematic characterization, including che...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Desalination 2022-03, Vol.525, p.115380, Article 115380
Main Authors: Zheng, Junfeng, Zhang, Xin, Li, Guichuan, Fei, Guanghai, Jin, Pengrui, Liu, Yanling, Wouters, Christine, Meir, Glen, Li, Yi, Van der Bruggen, Bart
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Heavy metals
Ion-ion selective
P84 membrane
Polyethylenimine (PEI)
Saline water
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Polyethylenimine (PEI) cross-linked P84 nanofiltration membranes were successfully developed through a facile stirring cross-linking method. The separation performance of the membrane was tailored by changing the concentration of the P84 casting solution. A systematic characterization, including chemical structure, surface morphology, surface charge, and separation performance, was carried out. Nanofiltration membranes with a high positive charge and hydrophilic surface were successfully fabricated. All the PEI cross-linked membranes showed high isoelectric points at pH from 8 to 8.9 and a mean pore radius from 0.389 to 0.474 nm. Under the influence of the Donnan effect and size exclusion, the 20%P84/PEI membrane showed an excellent water permeance of 27.7 ± 1.5 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and a high rejection (>90%) for single-component heavy metal salts (ZnCl2, PbCl2, Ni(NO3)2 and Cu(NO3)2). A variety of mixed salt separation performance tests were performed. These results clearly indicate that the 20%P84/PEI and 22%P84/PEI membranes have a huge potential to remove and concentrate copper ions from aqueous solutions. In particular, the 24%P84/PEI membrane is promising in the selective removal of various heavy metals from highly saline water. [Display omitted] •A positively charged nanofiltration membrane has been synthesized by cross-linking method.•The pore size of membrane could be controlled by altering the concentration of P84 casting solutions.•The 24%P84/PEI membrane showed a high selective removal of heavy metals from saline water.
ISSN:0011-9164
1873-4464
DOI:10.1016/j.desal.2021.115380