Abstract:
Phenol is regarded as a major pollutant, as the toxicity levels are in the range of 9–25 mg/L
for aquatic life and humans. This study embedded silica sodalite (SSOD) and hydroxy sodalite
(HSOD) nanoparticles into polysulfone (PSF) for enhancement of its physicochemical properties
for treatment of phenol-containing wastewater. The pure polysulfone membranes and sodaliteinfused membranes were synthesized via phase inversion. To check the surface morphology, surface
hydrophilicity, surface functionality, surface roughness and measure the mechanical properties of
the membranes, characterization techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), contact
angle measurements, Fourier Transform Infrared, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) nanotensile tests
were used, respectively. The morphology of the composite membranes showed incorporation of
the sodalite crystals decreased the membrane porosity. The results obtained showed the highest
contact angle of 83.81◦
for pure PSF as compared to that of the composite membranes. The composite
membranes with 10 wt.% HSOD/PSF and 10 wt.% SSOD/PSF showed mechanical enhancement
as indicated by a 20.96% and 19.69% increase in ultimate tensile strength, respectively compared
to pure PSF. The performance evaluation of the membranes was done using a dead-end filtration
cell at varied feed pressure. Synthetic phenol-containing wastewater was prepared by dissolving
one gram of phenol crystals in 1 L of deionized water and used in this study. Results showed
higher flux for sodalite infused membranes than pure PSF for both pure and phenol-containing
water. However, pure PSF showed the highest phenol rejection of 93.55% as compared to 63.65%
and 64.75% achieved by 10 wt.% HSOD/PSF and 10 wt.% SSOD/PSF, respectively. The two sodalite
infused membranes have shown enhanced mechanical properties and permeability during treatment
of phenol in synthetic wastewater.
