Rejection of Heavy Metal Ions with Polyelectrolyte Composite Nanofiltration Membrane

Abstract

Nanofiltration membrane was prepared by static layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly of poly (ethyleneimine) (PEI) and poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) on the modified poly-arcylonitrile ultra-filtration membrane. Study on self-assembly of polyelectrolyte membranes with changing surface charges and wettability, rejection properties of nanofiltration membrane in different conditions and pH with respect to heavy metal ions, namely Ni 2+ and Cd 2+ were investigated. The results show that the PEI/PSS membrane composed of 4 bilayers at operating pressure 0.4MPa, rejection of PAN-PEI/PSS nanofiltration membrane towards these 2 kind of heavy metal ions reached no less than 90%.