Abrasion-resistant polyethersulfone/Al2O3 membranes with excellent permeability: Fabrication, evaluation, and molecular dynamics simulation

SY Gao and LH Mu and HJ Yang and BJ Zhou and HP Fang and SQ Sheng, JOURNAL OF WATER PROCESS ENGINEERING, 72, 107544 (2025).

DOI: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2025.107544

Extending the membrane lifespan against abrasion and improving the membrane filtering performance in an economical and widely applicable manner remain urgent demand. Herein, by employing a one-step spray- sediment method, we prepared an abrasive-resistant polyethersulfone (PES)/Al2O3 hybrid membrane with excellent permeability, assisted by the Al2O3 nanoparticles, which are concentratedly embedded in the top surface. The water flux and BSA solution flux of the PES/Al2O3 hybrid membranes were increased by as high as similar to 80 % and similar to 27.0 %, respectively, at the Al2O3 loading ratio of merely 0.5-0.6 wt%, while the BSA rejection rate kept at a high level (similar to 88 %). The flux recovery rate was increased from 63.3 % to 70.5 % at the loading ratio of 0.8 wt%. Remarkably, the PES/Al2O3 hybrid membrane possessed excellent enhancement of abrasion resistance against the grinding of silicon carbide sandpaper, possessing a reduction of weight loss as high as 75.6 % in the initial 50 abrasion cycles. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the improved permeability can be attributed to the porous area of the particle-polymer bound layer formed by the nanoparticles embedded in the membrane's skin layer. Our findings highlight a simple and cost-effective one-step spray-sediment method suitable for the large-scale industrial fabrication of abrasive- resistant membranes with high performance, as well as provide physical insights into the improved membrane permeability.

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