Wastewater Treatment Containing Oil Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Ultrafiltration Membrane Modified with Functionalized SiO 2 Nanoparticles

Bharti Saini; Manish Kumar Sinha

Authors

Bharti Saini Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Manish Kumar Sinha Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Keywords:

Wastewater Treatment, Oil in water Emulsion, Polymer Membrane, Polyvinyl dine Fluoride, Removal Percentage

Abstract

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration membrane was fabricated by phase inversion method for the treatment of wastewater containing oil. In order to achieve less fouling and high rejection, modification of PVDF membrane had been done by blending of hydrophilic Poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate functionalized-SiO2 nanoparticles. Successful functionalization of SiO2
nanoparticles was done by measuring weight percentage of elements present using energy dispersive Xray spectroscopy (EDX) and particle size analyzer. The morphology of the plain and modified membranes was evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The contact angle (CA) was investigated for evaluation of hydrophilicity of the membranes. The hydrophilicity result reveals that the antifouling property of modified membrane was higher compare to plain membrane. Plain PVDF membrane showed less oil rejection of about 69% whereas functionalized nanoparticles helped to improve the oil rejection to the maximum value of 89%. Thus the PVDF/Polyethylene glycol 6000/ functionalised-nanoparticles membrane is desirable in the treatment of wastewater containing oil.