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Superior Performance of Titanium Coated Magnetic Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposite Based Poly(lactic acid) Membranes for the Separation of Chlorophenolic Organic Contaminants

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Abstract

Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) based biopolymeric membranes are biodegradable and are prone to fouling. In the current study, titanium-coated mesoporous silica (TiO2-MMS) nanocomposites have been incorporated with PLA membranes to enhance the flux performance and separation of chlorophenolic compounds. PLA membranes with TiO2-MMS nanocomposites were prepared using the phase inversion method. The structural, functional and crystalline morphology of the tailored membrane was determined by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The addition of 1.5 wt% of TiO2-MMS nanoparticles to bare PLA polymer enhanced the porosity to 37.93%, water content to 46.86% and contact angle to 59.21°. The designed PLA/TiO2-MMS nanocomposite membrane with a molecular weight cut-off of 9 kDa exhibits a pure water flux of 251.67 Lm−2 h−1. The higher concentration of TiO2-MMS nanocomposite to 1.5 wt% enhances the rejection to 49.5% and 56.8% for pentachlorophenol (PCP) and 2,6 dichlorophenol (DCP), respectively and improved the permeation flux of PCP to 111.08 Lm−2 h−1and DCP to 129.74 Lm−2 h−1. Interestingly, the PLA/TiO2-MMS (1.5 wt%) membrane resulted in a significant increase in flux recovery ratio of 54% for PCP and 58% for DCP, confirming the membrane’s antifouling property. At the same time, irreversible fouling of PCP and DCP of the PLA/TiO2-MMS (1.5 wt%) membrane decreased drastically to 20.5 and 19.11%, respectively. Therefore, biodegradable PLA membrane modified with TiO2-MMS nanocomposite designates its potential application in wastewater treatment plants for the treatment of contaminants.

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Data Availability

Data are available upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

PLA:

Poly(lactic acid)

TiO2-MMS:

Titanium coated magnetic mesoporous silica

PEG:

Poly ethylene glycol

MWCO:

Molecular weight cutoff

PCP:

Pentachlorophenol

DCP:

Dichlorophenol

NMP:

N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone

Rir :

Irreversible fouling

Rr :

Reversible fouling

FDR:

Flux decline rate

FRR:

Flux recovery ratio

XRD:

X-ray diffraction

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

ATR-FTIR:

Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their gratitude to Sri Ramaswamy Memorial Institute of Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu, India for their help and for aiding in facilitating the research

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Integrated Bioprocess Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 603203, India

    Jenet George, Satyendra Kumar Jha, Disha Chakrabarty, Anasuya Chakraborty & Vinoth Kumar Vaidyanathan

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  1. Jenet George
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  2. Satyendra Kumar Jha
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  3. Disha Chakrabarty
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Contributions

JG: Data curation; Formal analysis; Methodology; Roles/Writing—original draft; SK Jha: Writing—review and editing; Methodology; DC: Data curation; Formal analysis; AC: Data curation; Formal analysis; VKV: Investigation; Project administration; Supervision; Validation; Visualization,

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Correspondence to Vinoth Kumar Vaidyanathan.

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George, J., Jha, S.K., Chakrabarty, D. et al. Superior Performance of Titanium Coated Magnetic Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposite Based Poly(lactic acid) Membranes for the Separation of Chlorophenolic Organic Contaminants. J Polym Environ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-023-03098-0

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