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

Prabhakar Satishkumar; Arun M Isloor; Lakshmi Nidhi Rao; Ramin Farnood

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c10078

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

ACS Omega. 2024 Jun 3;9(24):25766-25778. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c10078. eCollection 2024 Jun 18.

Authors

Prabhakar Satishkumar¹, Arun M Isloor¹, Lakshmi Nidhi Rao², Ramin Farnood³

Affiliations

¹ Membrane and Separation Technology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 575 025 Mangalore, India.
² Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, A.B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Nitte deemed to be University, Deralakatte, 575018 Mangalore, India.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, M5R OA3 Toronto, Canada.

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-V₂CT _x (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-V₂CT _x -embedded mixed matrix membrane was fabricated and utilized for removal of hazardous dye and humic acid from wastewater. With an increase in V₂CT _x loading, the hydrophilicity of the polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membrane reasonably improved, and its water contact angle was reduced from 82.8 to 70.9°. V₂CT _x 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 V₂CT _x -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 V₂CT _x -incorporated PPSU ultrafiltration membrane to effectively treat humic acid and dye wastewater.