A novel polyethersulfone/modified activated carbon fiber composite membrane: potential for removal micropollutants from water under the electric field

摘要

This study aimed to develop a novel composite membrane based on polyethersulfone (PES) and modified activated carbon fibers (ACFs) to remove of sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) from water. The modification of ACFs was conducted by using acid, Fe, and Mn and was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and water contact angle measurement. Later on, the composite membranes were prepared using PES (9 wt), N-N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) (75 wt), polyethylene pyrrolidone (PVP) (5 wt), anhydrous lithium chloride (LiCl) (1 wt), and various types of modified ACFs (0.8 wt) as additives. It was found that the contact angle of the membrane decreased by more than 20 degrees, and the zeta potential decreased by more than 10 mV. ACF modified by Fe was used as an admixture, membrane obtained the high comprehensive performance. Especially bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection rate and flux recovery ratio (FRR) reached 98.8 and 98.4, respectively. And the removal rates of SMZ increased by 24.6 under the electric field. The degradation products were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS). Based on this result, the possible degradation pathways of SMZ are proposed.