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Effect of polymer type on the characteristics of ZnO embedded nanocomposite membranes

In the present study, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes were manufactured using different polymeric backbone materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polysulfone (PSf) and modified with ZnO nanoparticles using a varying ratio of 0.1–2.0 wt.% in order to achieve the best filtration performance. Moreover, compositions of the casting solutions of the pristine membranes in terms of polymer/ solvent and polymer/pore-former ratios were varied to determine the best pristine membrane recipe. The results showed that 0.5% ZnO loading provided the highest water flux performance for both PVC and PSf based membranes, which were found as 420 and 426 L/m2h, respectively, under the transmembrane pressure of 0.7 bar. Several characterization techniques were carried out to examine thermal and mechanical properties, as well as morphological structures in comparison to the pristine membranes. The type of polymeric backbone material exhibited a significant effect not only on the filtration performance but also on the lifetime and mechanical properties of the UF membranes. The results clearly indicate that the compatibility of ZnO nanoparticles with PVC is better than PSf under identical fabrication conditions.