Fabrication of 2D Vanadium MXene Polyphenylsulfone Ultrafiltration Membrane for Enhancing the Water Flux and for Effective Separation of Humic Acid and Dyes from Wastewater

Abstract

MXene, a new 2D transition metal carbide-based material, is gaining outstanding attention in recent days in the area of separation and purification. In this study, we have successfully synthesized vanadium-based MXene-V2CTx (where T represents functional groups such as -OH, O, and F) by etching an aluminum layer from V2AlC. For the first time, a vanadium-based MXene-V2CTx-embedded mixed matrix membrane was fabricated and utilized for removal of hazardous dye and humic acid from wastewater. With an increase in V2CTx loading, the hydrophilicity of the polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membrane reasonably improved, and its water contact angle was reduced from 82.8 to 70.9°. V2CTx nanosheet-embedded PPSU membrane exhibited an excellent pure water permeability of 247 L m-2 h-1, which was 266% elevated than the pristine PPSU membrane. The V2CTx-PPSU membrane revealed a good antifouling nature, thermal stability, and 98.5% removal of humic acid. The optimal membrane exhibited 96.6 and 82.02% expulsion of Reactive Black 5 (RB 5) dye and Reactive Orange 16 (RO 16) dye, respectively. The flux for RO 16 and RB 5 dyes and humic acid were remarkable with a value of 202.02, 161.61, and 141.41 L m-2 h-1, respectively. This work provides a new V2CTx-incorporated PPSU ultrafiltration membrane to effectively treat humic acid and dye wastewater.