Improvement on physical properties of polyethersulfone membranes modified by poly(1-vinylpyrrolidone) grafted magnetic Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles

Polyethersulfone (PES) and poly(1-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) were used to prepare ultrafiltration membranes with grafted Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2). The structure of synthesized PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 was confirmed by FT-IR and SEM analysis. Physical properties of blend membranes such as thermal resistance, Tensile strength, water uptake, and hydrophilicity were also investigated. Blended membranes of PES/PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 have exhibited higher thermal resistance due to increasing the modified nanoparticle content. The hydrophilicity of the synthesized PES/PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 membranes also improved by increasing the PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 content. As expected, increasing the hydrophilicity of blended membrane, caused enhancement of fouling resistance in membranes. Results showed that the content of PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 has different effects on the properties of synthesized composite membranes. Despite increasing the content of PVP-g-Fe3O4@SiO2 has a negative effect on elongation, positive effects on maximum stress was observed. Moreover, the water uptake of synthesized membranes was significantly enhanced in comparison to other similar studies.