A new thin film composite nanofiltration membrane based on PET nanofiber support and polyamide top layer: preparation and characterization

The main objective of this study was to prepare thin film nanofibrous composite (TFNC) membranes based on self-support nanofibrous mats. To this end, polyethylene terephthalate nanofibrous supports were produced by electrospinning technique and subsequently heat treatment was performed to increase mechanical stability of the mats. Then, interfacial polymerization procedure was applied for preparation of TFNC nanofiltration membranes. For comparison, the thin film composite (TFC) nanofiltration membrane was prepared by the same conditions based on polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane prepared through phase inversion method. Chemical structure, morphology and mechanical properties were studied by using ATR-FTIR, SEM and tensile tests, respectively. Also, filtration performance was investigated by water flux, rejection, water contact angle and MWCO determination. Results showed that the TFNC nanofiltration membrane had higher salt rejection and four times higher water flux than the TFC nanofiltraion membrane (Na2SO4 rejection and pure water flux were (93 +/- 3)%, (34 +/- 2.3) L./m(2)h and (67 +/- 4)%, (8 +/- 0.9) L./m(2)h for TFNC and TFC, respectively). At the end, the filtration performance of PET TFNC-NF membrane was compared with other nanofibrous nanofiltration membranes.