Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

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Separation and Purication Technology

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Preparation and characterization of novel polysulfone nanoltration membranes

for removal of cadmium from contaminated water
E. Saljoughi a,b, S.M. Mousavi a,
a
b

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Research Center of Membrane Processes and Membrane, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 November 2011
Received in revised form 23 December 2011
Accepted 7 February 2012
Available online 14 February 2012
Keywords:
Polysulfone membrane
Hydrophilicity
IGEPAL
Cadmium removal
Wastewater treatment

a b s t r a c t
In this research, novel asymmetric polysulfone (PSF) membranes with high hydrophilicity, contact angel
53, and noticeable rejection of cadmium, up to 98%, were prepared from PSF/IGEPAL/NMP system via
immersion precipitation. The effect of adding IGEPAL as an amphiphilic additive as well as coagulation
bath temperature (CBT) on morphology, wettability and permeability of the prepared membranes were
studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurement and permeation experiments. The results demonstrated that both hydrophilicity and cadmium removal of the prepared
membranes were signicantly enhanced by small addition of IGEPAL surfactant in the casting solution
along with using the lowest level of CBT. Also it was found out that initial addition of IGEPAL in the casting solution along with increasing the CBT resulted in formation of membranes with high permeability
and sub-layer porosity and thin top layer.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Wastewaters containing heavy metals have always attracted
widespread attention because of the signicant threat they pose
to the environment and to human health [1,2]. Cadmium is attracting wide attention from environmentalists as one of the most toxic
heavy metals [3]. Cadmium is found in industrial discharges of
different industries such as manufacturing of cadmiumnickel batteries, phosphate fertilizers, pigments, stabilizers, alloys, and electroplating industries. In addition, cadmium exists naturally as a
minor constituent of base metal ores and coal deposits. As a result,
it exists in the efuent of related industries and can pollute water
resources due to the discharge of untreated or insufciently treated industrial wastewaters or waste disposal [4,5]. Quantity of
cadmium in environment is shown in Table 1.
In humans, accumulation of cadmium causes kidney failure, nervous system damage and bone damage, as well as other serious
illness [6]. In fact, cadmium is a cumulative toxicant causing
progressive chronic poisoning. According to the standards of world
health organization (WHO), the maximum contaminant level (MCL)
of cadmium in drinking water is 5 lg L1 [3]. The development of
new technology for removal of heavy metal, such as cadmium ions,
from aqueous solutions remains an important scientic endeavor
[6]. Membrane processes, particularly nanoltration (NF), appears
to be a potential treatment process and can be considered a
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +98 511 8816840.
E-mail address: mmousavi@um.ac.ir (S.M. Mousavi).
1383-5866/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2012.02.008

promising technology for removing cadmium from water. The

application of membrane techniques in the environmental protection involves a number of advantages in terms of: low consumption
of energy, no requirement of chemical substances to be added, easy
way to increase the capacity (modular system), separation in the
continuous mode, possibility to easily join membrane processes
with other unit processes (hybrid processes), separation carried
out in mild environment conditions [7]. There are several studies
reported using NF as a tool for removal of heavy metals like cadmium. Chaudhari et al. [8] studied the performance of one type of
commercial NF membranes for cadmium removal. The observed
rejections of cadmium were found to be 80.57% and 97.26% for
CdCl2water and CdSO4water systems, respectively. Also Qdais
et al. [9] used commercial polyamide NF membranes for cadmium
removal. Their results showed that removal efciency of the NF
ranged from 82% to 97%. Effect of cadmium concentration in feed
solution on cadmium rejection was investigated by Garba et al.
[3]. They showed that there is an inverse relationship between
the heavy metal concentration and its rejection. Also Murthy
et al. [10] observed that the rejection of cadmium during NF process
was increased with increase in feed pressure at constant feed ow
rate.
Currently, polymers are still the main materials in membrane
technology, particularly in preparation of NF membranes, with
the advantages of good exibility, toughness and separation properties. However, a limited chemical, mechanical and thermal resistance restricts their applied scale. In fact, all polymers can be used
as barrier or membrane materials, but their chemical and physical

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E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

Table 1
Quantity of cadmium in environment [5].
Atmosphere
Sea water
Earths crust
Contaminated water resources by discharge of untreated or
insufciently treated industrial wastewaters or waste
disposal

0.15 ng/m3
0.1 lg L1
100
500 ppb
Up to
100 lg L1

properties differ so much that only a limited number are used in

practice [11,12].
Polysulfone (PSF) is broadly applied in preparation of polymeric
membranes owing to good physicochemical stability, resistance to
oxidation and chlorine [13].
Despite of above advantages, PSF membrane has a tendency to
be contaminated for its hydrophobicity, which can result in declining of ux and life of the membrane [14]. Consequently, several
researchers have examined altering membrane surface properties
using various methods such as UV induced graft polymerization
[1517], redox initiated grafting [18], plasma or chemical modication [15,19] and ion-beam irradiation [20]. However, these
methods suffer the drawbacks of requiring additional complicated
steps and offering random control over the resulting surface structure [21]. A promising in situ membrane surface modication
approach can be obtained by addition of hydrophilic additives to
the membrane casting solutions. Some researchers studied the
effects of surfactant and other additives on the membrane morphology and performance. Yamasaki et al. [22] and Alsari et al.
[23] used sodium dodecyl sulphate as surfactant additive in the
PSF casting solution for gas separation and as the gelation media
on formation of polyethersulfone membranes, respectively. The effects of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyethylene glycol (PEG)
on the structure and permeation properties of PSF membranes
were investigated by Chakrabarty et al. [24] and Zheng et al.
[25], respectively. The effect of addition of Span 80 on the morphology and pervaporation performance of asymmetric PSF membranes is reported by Tsai et al. [26]. The effects of Triton X-100 as
a nonionic surfactant additive were also investigated by
Rahimpour et al. [27]. Nanocomposite membranes such as PSF/silica nanoparticle mixed-matrix membranes were prepared and
characterized by Ahn et al. [28].
There is no previous published article regarding the effects of
addition of IGEPAL surfactant as hydrophilic additives and variation in coagulation bath temperature for the improvement of
permeation, cadmium removal and hydrophilic property of the
PSF membranes.
High HLB number of IGEPAL and consequently high hydrophilic
property of this surfactant along with other desirable properties
such as compatibility with PSF, low price and etc. resulted in using
this surfactant.
In this work, IGEPAL as a hydrophilic surfactant additive was
selected to blend with PSF in the membrane preparation process.
The effects of IGEPAL additive and variation in CBT on morphology,
wettability and pure water permeation ux (PWF) of the PSF membranes were investigated in details. Also, removal of cadmium, as
one of the major environmental problems, from contaminated
water was studied by the prepared NF membranes.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
PSF (Ultrason S 6010) supplied by BASF was used as polymer for
preparation of the membrane casting solution. 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) with an analytical purity of 99.5% and distilled water

Fig. 1. IGEPAL molecule structure.

Table 2
IGEPAL properties used in the membrane preparation.
Property

Value

Molecular weight
Density
HLB number
Melting point
Boiling point
Linear formula

1980 g/mol
0.96 g/cm3
17
47 C
>200 C
(C2H4O)n  C15H24O n = 40

Table 3
Composition of the PSF casting solutions and coagulation bath temperature (CBT).
Membrane

PSF (wt.%)

CBT (C)

IGEPAL (wt.%)

Viscosity (Pa s)

M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
M6
M7
M8

15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15

25
25
25
25
0
0
0
0

0
2
4
6
0
2
4
6

5.1
6.1
7.4
9.6
5.1
6.1
7.4
9.6

were used as the solvent and the nonsolvent agents, respectively.

IGEPAL CO-890 (polyoxyethylene (40) nonylphenyl ether,
HLB = 17) supplied by Aldrich was used as a nonionic surfactant
additive in the casting solution. The chemical structure and properties of IGEPAL are presented in Fig. 1 and Table 2, respectively.
Also, CdSO4 supplied by Aldrich was used for preparation of
contaminated water.

2.2. Preparation of the membranes

Asymmetric at sheet PSF membranes were prepared by phase
inversion method. IGEPAL was added to the homogeneous solution
of PSF in NMP, and mixed by stirring for 12 h at room temperature.
The stirring was carried out at 200 rpm. The prepared homogeneous solutions were cast using a lm applicator with 300 lm
clearance gap on a glass plate substrate. It was then moved to
the distilled water coagulation bath at room temperature for
immersion precipitation. After primarily phase separation and formation, the membrane was stored in water for 24 h to guarantee
complete phase separation. This allows the water soluble components in the membrane to be leached out. As the nal stage, membrane was dried by placing between two sheets of lter paper for
24 h at room temperature. Composition of the casting solutions
is shown in Table 3.

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E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

2.3. Membrane characterization

2.3.1. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
The membranes were snapped under liquid nitrogen to give a
generally consistent and clean cut. The membranes were then
sputter-coated with thin lm of gold. The membranes were
mounted on brass plates with double-sided adhesive tape in a
lateral position. Cross-sectional images of the membranes were
obtained with a CamScan SEM model MV2300 Microscope.
2.3.2. Contact angle
The surfaces of the PSF membrane and the IGEPAL-modied PSF
membranes were characterized using a contact angle measuring
instrument [G10, KRUSS, Germany]. Drops of distilled water were
deposited onto the membrane surface and the direct microscopic
measurement of the contact angles was done with the goniometer.
2.3.3. NF experiments
A membrane pilot containing a disk membrane module made
from stainless steel was used in the experiments. The effective
membrane area in the module is 20 cm2. The schematic representation of membrane pilot is shown in Fig. 2. The PWF measurement
and determination of cadmium rejection were carried out in a
batch mode and transmembrane pressure of 1 MPa.
PWF was calculated using the following equation:

Flux

Q
A Dt

Where Q is the quantity of permeate (L), A is the effective membrane area (m2) and Dt is the sampling time (h).
The cadmium concentrations for both permeate and feed
samples were determined by atomic absorption spectrometer
(Perkin Elmer 5100, USA). Finally, the retention coefcient (R)
was calculated as follows [21]:

%R



Cp
 100
1
CF

Where, Cp and CF are the concentrations of the permeate and feed

solutions, respectively.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Morphological studies of the prepared membranes
3.1.1. Membrane formation mechanism
Microscopic studies using SEM images were carried out to nd
out the qualitative information regarding the cross-sectional morphology of the prepared membranes. SEM images from the prepared
membranes and trend of their thickness are illustrated in Figs. 35.
Figs. 3 and 4 exhibit a typical asymmetric structure and fully
developed pores. Asymmetric structure of the membrane comprises
a dense thin top layer and a porous sub-layer which is lled up by the
closed cells within polymer matrix and nger like macrovoids. Using
Figs. 3 and 4, the effects of different concentrations of IGEPAL as a

hydrophilic additive and two different levels of CBT on the morphology and thickness of the PSF membranes can be studied. As observed
from the SEM images:
1. At constant CBTs (0 C and 25 C), increasing IGEPAL concentration up to 4 wt.% caused formation of greater macrovoids (more
porous structures) and increased the membrane thickness.
While higher IGEPAL concentrations than 4 wt.% (increase from
4 wt.% to 6 wt.%) led to denser structure and lower thickness.
2. Increase in CBT from 0 C to 25 C resulted in greater formation
of macrovoids (more porous structure) and noticeable increase
in the thickness of the prepared membranes.
An explanation for these observations requires an understanding of the membrane formation mechanism explained in our previous articles [11,29,30]. In brief, after immersion of the casting
solution into the coagulation bath, that contains distilled water,
and because of the low miscibility between the polymer (PSF)
and nonsolvent (water), the cast lm begins to precipitate. On
the other hand, high mutual afnity between the solvent (NMP)
and the nonsolvent (water) results in diffusional ow of NMP
and water molecules (the solvent and nonsolvent exchange) at
several points of the lms top layer and the sublayer, which subsequently terminates to the formation of nuclei of a polymer-poor
phase. In fact, incompatibility between the PSF chains and water
molecules results in the repulsion of PSF chains, at the points that
water molecules diffuse, and consequently the formation of nuclei
of the polymer-poor phase. Because of the continuation of the solvent and nonsolvent exchange and in the other words, duration of
diffusional ow of the NMP and water molecules, the aforesaid
nuclei continue to grow until the polymer concentration at their
limits becomes too high and solidication occurs (the demixing
process is completed) [11,29,30].
The rate of demixing process in the coagulation bath affects the
structure of the prepared membranes. Instantaneous demixing often terminates to the formation of more porous structure, whereas
slow demixing leads to formation of denser structure [11,29,30].
Also, it must be mentioned that nishing the membrane formation (solidication of the cast lm in the coagulation bath), causes
a halt in reduction of the thickness of the prepared membranes
[11,31].
3.1.2. Effect of IGEPAL
In this study, the presence of IGEPAL as a hydrophilic additive can
lead to instantaneous demixing in the coagulation bath, because:
1. IGEPAL is a hydrophilic additive with nonsolvent properties [an
additive that, similar to nonsolvents, has a high and low afnity
to the solvent (NMP) and the polymer (PSF), respectively
[11,32]] and thus increases the thermodynamic instability of
the cast lm.
2. IGEPAL is amphiphilic, i.e. with hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail, and therefore a layer of IGEPAL molecules is formed on
the surface of the casting lm after immersion into the

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

25

Fig. 3. SEM cross-sectional images of the prepared membranes (100 magnication).

coagulation bath (Fig. 6). Formation of this layer reduces surface

tension at the points that surfactant molecules are present and
consequently facilitate diffusion of water molecules.
It is evident that above effects can result in the instantaneous
demixing in the coagulation bath and consequently preparation

of the membranes with more porous structure. On the other hands,

as mentioned before, instantaneous demixing causes that the
solidication of the casting solution in the coagulation bath, and
in other words stopping the precipitation process, takes place more
quickly [11,31]. This can result in increasing the thickness of the
prepared membranes.

26

E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

Fig. 4. SEM cross-sectional images of the prepared membranes (250 magnication).

From another point of view, the presence of IGEPAL increases

the viscosity of the cast lm (as shown in Table 3). The viscosity
increase of the cast lm slows down the diffusional exchange rate
of the solvent (NMP) and nonsolvent (water) during the solidication process and, consequently, hinders instantaneous demixing

[31,33]. This can lead to delayed demixing and, consequently, the

suppression of macrovoids and the formation of denser structures.
Hence, the addition of hydrophilic additives, such as IGEPAL, to
the casting solution has a dual effect on membrane morphology. In
fact, the nal structure depends on the superiority of instantaneous

E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

Above important changes in morphology can be attributed to

and explained by the phase inversion kinetics. In fact, decrease in
CBT reduces mutual diffusivity between the solvent (NMP) and
nonsolvent (water) during solidication of the casting solution in
the coagulation bath. This results in delayed demixing and consequently causes:

260
CBT=0 C

Membrane thickness (m)

240

27

CBT=25 C

220
200
180
160
140
120
0

1. Slow growth of nuclei that are poor in terms of PSF and consequently the formation of more nuclei in front of them. The formation of too many nuclei, which grow slowly, reduces the size
of macrovoids and consequently, results in the formation of
denser structure.
2. Stopping of the precipitation process in the coagulation bath
takes a long time. It is evident that this delay in membrane formation results in the precipitation process continuation and consequently decreasing the thickness of the prepared membranes.

IGEPAL wt. %
Fig. 5. Thickness of the prepared membranes.

or delayed demixing, which, as mentioned before, both come from

the presence of IGEPAL in the cast solution lm. In this study and
according to the SEM cross sectional images, an initial increase in
the IGEPAL concentration (from 0 wt.% to 2 wt.% and 4 wt.%) caused
a greater formation of macrovoids and more porous structures.
However, even higher IGEPAL concentrations resulted in the suppression of macrovoids and denser structures. Thus, it seems that
with the initial increase in IGEPAL concentration (from 0 wt.% to
4 wt.%), instantaneous demixing is preferred over delayed demixing.
However, with further increase in IGEPAL concentration (from
4 wt.% to 6 wt.%) and because of the importance of viscosity effects,
delayed demixing is preferred over instantaneous demixing.

3.1.3. Effect of CBT

The effect of variation in CBT with two levels (0 C and 25 C) on
the membrane morphology is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. According to
these gures, which present the cross-sectional images of the prepared membranes, the increase in CBT results in greater formation
of macrovoids and consequently formation of more porous
structure.
Also the variation effect of CBT on the prepared membranes
thickness is shown in Fig. 5. According to this gure, the decrease
in CBT from 25 C to 0 C results in noticeable reduction of the
thickness of the prepared membranes.

The aforementioned observations are in agreement with our

previous research about the cellulose acetate membranes [29
31]. In general, it can be said that the formation of more porous
structure occurs under quick precipitation conditions, and the precipitation is faster at higher temperatures.
3.2. Contact angle
Contact angles were measured to evaluate the changes in the
hydrophilicity and surface properties of nano-porous PSF membranes after blending with the IGEPAL and variation in CBT.
Fig. 7 shows the effect of variation in CBT and addition of IGEPAL,
as a hydrophilic surfactant, on the contact angle and wettability of
the PSF membranes. As shown in Fig. 7, the highest contact angle
(>80), and in other words the lowest hydrophilicity, is obtained
for the PSF membranes without addition of IGEPAL in the casting
solution (M1 and M5). However, addition of hydrophilic IGEPAL
and using cold coagulation bath resulted in the lowest contact angle (53 for M8), and in other words the highest hydrophilicity.
This result is better in comparison with the other studies such as:
1. Fan et al. [34] used polyaniline (PANI) nanobers to improve the
hydrophilic property and permeability of PSF membrane. The
membranes cast with addition of PANI nanobers had the
contact angle of about 60 for top surface.
2. The effects of addition of multi-walled carbon nanotubes
(MWNTs) on the hydrophilicity and permeability of PSF membranes were investigated by Choi et al. [35]. MWNTs were rst
treated with strong acid. The carboxylic acid functional groups

Fig. 6. The effect of IGEPAL on the formation of PSF membrane by phase inversion.

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E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

85

75
CBT=0 C

CBT=0 C

70

CBT=25 C

80

CBT=25 C

75

PWF(L/m2hr)

Contact angle ()

65

70
65

60
55
50
45

60

40
55

35
30

50
0

IGEPAL wt. %

IGEPAL wt. %

Fig. 7. Contact angle of the prepared membranes.

Fig. 8. PWF of the prepared membranes.

developed by the treatment with the acid on the surface of

MWNTs resulted in increasing the hydrophilicity of the blend
membranes (contact angle = 56).
3. Zhao et al. [36] used DNA to improve the hydrophilic property
and permeability of PSF membrane. The membranes cast with
addition of DNA had the contact angle of about 60 for top
surface.

1. As observed in Figs. 3 and 4, addition 2 wt.% and 4 wt.% of

IGEPAL to the casting solution results in greater formation of
macrovoids and consequently reduces the main resistance
against the water permeation.
2. Hydrophilicity of the PSF membranes is increased by addition of
IGEPAL to the casting solution (Fig. 7).

When the concentration of IGEPAL in the casting solution is

increased, the contact angle of membrane is decreased. This indicates that a more hydrophilic surface is produced by increasing
the percentage of IGEPAL in the casting solution.
On the other hand and according to Fig. 7, the increase in CBT
results in higher contact angle and consequently lower membrane
hydrophilicity. It should be noted that the quantity of the residual
IGEPAL, that has a direct relationship with the membrane hydrophilicity, determines the wettability of the PSF membranes. The
quantity of the residual IGEPAL highly depends on CBT. At higher
CBT, because of higher solubility and diffusivity of IGEPAL, it can
be more easily washed out during the membrane formation
process. It is evident that the reduction of residual IGEPAL in the
membrane structure results in higher contact angle and consequently preparation of the membrane with lower hydrophilicity.
The aforementioned observations are in agreement with our
previous research about the cellulose acetate membranes [33].

3.3. Cadmium removal and water permeation of the PSF membranes

Permeation experiments were carried out to study permeability
property of the PSF membranes. The obtained results are presented
in Fig. 8. As observed, PWF of the PSF membranes is increased by
increasing the CBT. According to Figs. 3 and 4, increase in CBT
results in greater formation of macrovoids (more porous structure)
and consequently reduces the main resistance against the water
permeation.
On the other hand, in both cold and normal coagulation bath,
0 C and 25 C, respectively, PWF of the PSF membranes is initially
increased by increasing the IGEPAL concentration. For example,
PWF of M1 and M5, membranes prepared without addition of
IGEPAL in the casting solution, are 38.1 l/m2 h and 34.2 l/m2 h,
respectively. These small uxes are increased to 69.8 l/m2 h and
49 l/m2 h, respectively, by addition 4 wt.% of IGEPAL to the casting
solution. Increase in PWF of the PSF membranes prepared via addition of IGEPAL as surfactant additive to the casting solution may be
due to the combined effects of morphology and hydrophilicity:

It is evident that above effects result in formation of membranes

with higher PWF. However, further increase in IGEPAL concentration (from 4 wt.% to 6 wt.%) results in decreasing the PWF. These
measurements conrm the trends observed in the SEM images,
where further increase in the IGEPAL concentration from 4 wt.%
to 6 wt.%, resulted in formation of denser structure. It seems that
after mentioned increase in IGEPAL concentration, effect of formation of denser structure is dominant in comparison with the formation of surface with higher hydrophilicity.
Effect of the synthesis parameters on cadmium rejection of the
prepared membranes is presented in Fig. 9. As observed, membranes without addition of IGEPAL in the casting solution show
the lowest rejection of cadmium (78.1% and 81.5% for M1 and
M5, respectively). However, maximum addition of hydrophilic
IGEPAL (6 wt.%) and using cold coagulation bath resulted in the
highest rejection of cadmium (98% for M8). In fact and according
to Fig. 9, membranes with higher hydrophilic property, that contain IGEPAL additive or have been prepared into the cold coagulation bath, result in higher rejection of cadmium. As mentioned
before, decrease in CBT along with increase in the IGEPAL concentration from 4 wt.% to 6 wt.%, results in formation of denser structure and consequently intensies the main resistance against the
water permeation. On the other hand and according to Fig. 9, the
mentioned variation in CBT and IGEPAL concentration results in
higher rejection of cadmium. These observations are in agreement
with the literature [16,37]. In the other words, in more cases water
ux and solute rejection have reverse trends, i.e. when water ux
increases, solute rejection decreases slightly [16,37]. Although
according to Figs. 8 and 9, more obtained results of this study conrm literature, the initial increase in IGEPAL concentration up to
4 wt.% results in simultaneous increase in the water permeation
and cadmium rejection. Before explanation of above trend, it
should be noted that simultaneous increase in the water permeation and solute rejection is not a rare phenomenon and sometimes both water ux and rejection increase simultaneously. For
instance, Murthy et al. [10] observed that during the NF process,
both water permeation and cadmium rejection were increased
with increase in transmembrane pressure at constant feed ow

E. Saljoughi, S.M. Mousavi / Separation and Purication Technology 90 (2012) 2230

2. Membranes with higher hydrophilic property resulted in

noticeable rejection of cadmium, as one of the major environmental problems, from the contaminated water.
3. The thickness/porosity of the prepared membranes and consequently their PWF is initially increased by addition 2 wt.% and
4 wt.% of IGEPAL. However, further increase in the IGEPAL concentration from 4 wt.% to 6 wt.% reversed these trends.
4. Increase in the CBT resulted in greater formation of macrovoids
and consequently, formation of membranes with higher water
permeation.

100
CBT=0 C
CBT=25 C

95

Cd rejection (%)

29

90

85

80

References
75
0

IGEPAL wt. %
Fig. 9. Cadmium rejection of the prepared membranes.

rate. It seems that the pressure is more effective on transmission of

tiny components similar to water in comparison with large
cadmium.
As mentioned before, the feed contains water and cadmium.
Basically, there is a competition between water and cadmium for
transmission through the membrane. Because of high hydration
energy, cadmium is very large in comparison with water [3,38].
According to Figs. 3 and 4, membranes without IGEPAL additive
are too dense in comparison with the other membranes and comprise thick dense top layer. Thus in these membranes, resistance
against the feed permeation, for both water and cadmium, is
noticeable. As mentioned before and according to the SEM images,
increasing IGEPAL concentration up to 4 wt.% causes the formation
of more porous structures with thinner dense top layer and consequently facilitates the transmission of both water and cadmium.
The mentioned increase in rejection of cadmium can be related
to moderate increase in the porosity that results in moderate
reduction of the resistance against the water permeation. This
moderate change of morphology can be more effective on the
transmission of tiny components similar to water in comparison
with large cadmium. This can lead to the reduction of cadmium
in the permeate stream and consequently higher rejection of this
heavy metal. However it should be noted that for smaller components in comparison with cadmium, even moderate increase in
the porosity can lead to reduction of the rejection.
It is interesting that blending the PSF with IGEPAL results in
noticeable removal of cadmium, as a toxicant material and one of
the major environmental problems, as well as preparation of membranes with higher hydrophilic property. Thus production of highquality water along with decrease in costs of energy and early
membrane replacement come from preparation of PSF/IGEPAL
blend NF membranes.
4. Conclusions
The effects of IGEPAL concentration as a hydrophilic surfactant
additive in PSF/NMP casting solutions and variation in CBT on the
fundamental characteristics of the membranes such as morphology, wettability, permeability and cadmium removal were investigated. It was found that:
1. Novel modied PSF membranes with high hydrophilic property
can be produced using cold coagulation bath and addition of
hydrophilic surfactant, IGEPAL, in the casting solution.

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