Removal of Organic Dye in Wastewater Using Polyethersulfone Hollow Fiber Membrane

Abstract

In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) hollow fiber membranes (HFM) were fabricated with different weight percentage (wt. %) of polymer at 16 wt. %, 18 wt. % and 20 wt. %, in order to study the impact of polymer weight percentages on membrane properties and its dye rejection performance. Microfiltration HFM were fabricated by using the laboratory dry-wet spinning method. In order to improve the pore structure of the polymer membrane, 3 wt. % of (PVP) of 8000 M.W. was added in the dope solution. All the fabricated PES hollow fiber membranes were characterized using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and the contact angle. The HFM’s performance was evaluated in terms of dye rejection, by using Direct Red 80 dye as substitute of organic dye in wastewater. The results ed that the membrane with higher weight percentage of PES polymer (20 % PES) had thicker separation layer, smoother membrane surface and uniform like pore structures. The membrane with the higher weight percentage of polymer (20% PES) had higher dye rejection percentage (67.33%) and higher permeate flux (10.024 L/m2h) compared to 16 wt. % and 18 wt. %. The results of this study revealed that the weight percentage of polymer in the membrane did affect the membrane properties and its performance.