Mahdi Seyfollahi - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran | Membrane Technology Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
Habib Etemadi - Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bonab, Bonab, Iran
Reza Yegani - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran | Membrane Technology Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran
Mahyar Rabeii - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran | Membrane Technology Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran

In this study, membranes were prepared by pristine and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted ‎nanodiamond (ND) embedded in cellulose acetate (CA) as matrix polymer via non-solvent ‎induced phase separation method. The antifouling properties of the membranes were studied ‎during filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions and the governing fouling mechanisms ‎of the membranes were also investigated using the Hermia model. Fourier Transform Infrared ‎Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed that ND was ‎successfully functionalized by PEG. CA/ND-PEG nanocomposite membranes have higher ‎hydrophilicity, porosity, water uptake, mechanical strength and a lower amount of adsorbed ‎protein than pure CA and CA/ND membranes. Besides, the antifouling performance of the ‎CA/ND-PEG (0.5 wt.%) nanocomposite membrane also witnessed considerable improvement, in ‎comparison with that of pure CA and CA/ND (0.5 wt.%) membranes. The obtained results ‎showed that the best fit to experimental data for all membranes (pure and nanocomposite ‎membranes) corresponds to the cake layer formation model.‎

Antifouling, cellulose acetate, nanocomposite membrane, Nanodiamond, Polyethylene glycol