Effects of TiO2 NTs% on Polyethersulfone/TiO2 NTs Membranes

Abstract

In this work, PES (polyethersulfone)/TiO 2 nanotubes membranes were fabricated by a simple and cheap method. The TiO 2 NTs (titanium dioxide nanotubes) are prepared by the hydrothermal method, the tubes had a narrow size distribution with an average inner diameter of 3-5 nm and outer diameter of 10-13 nm. TiO 2 NTs blended PES membranes are prepared by phase inversion method with different nanotubes percentage (0.18%-0.85%). The morphology of PES membrane was obviously affected by the addition of TiO 2 NTs. The prepared membranes were applied on a vacuum desalination system and the desalination results showed that the salt rejection % and permeate flux of the membrane are enhanced through the addition of TiO 2 NTs. The membrane with higher (0.85%) TiO 2 NTs content resulted in a decrease of salt rejection % because of the defective membrane structure.