Integration of polyethersulfone and hydroxyapatite nanofiltration membrane for vanillic acid separation

Abstract

In this work, the integration of polyethersulfone and hydroxyapatite was studied for vanillic acid separation. The polyethersulfone membranes were modified with hydroxyapatite via in-situ approach in order to enhance the performance of the membrane. The membranes were further characterized concerning permeability, morphology, membrane structural details, porosity and contact angle. The addition of hydroxyapatite in mixed matrix membrane increased the permeation rate from 19.05 L/m2.hr up to 95.76 L/m2.hr due to the increasing of hydrophilicity. The membrane permeability coefficients lie in the range of 1.909 – 10.05 L/m2.hr.bar which were nanofiltration range. The performances of the membrane exhibited higher rejection which showed the vanillic acid rejection up to 69.88% for modified membrane.