Gravity-driven Electrospun Membranes for Effective Removal of Perfluoro-organics from Synthetic Groundwater

Overview

Journal J Memb Sci

Date 2022 Aug 1

PMID 35911189

Authors

Hongyi Wan

Rollie Mills

Yixing Wang

Keyu Wang

Sunjie Xu

Dibakar Bhattacharyya

Zhi Xu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants in water and soil. Electrospun membranes with open structure could treat PFAS in a gravity-driven mode with ultralow pressure needs. The electrospun ultrathin fibers (67 ± 27 nm) was prepared for the enhanced specific surface area; where polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) backbones and the grafted quaternary ammonium moieties (QA; PVDF-g-QA membranes) provided both hydrophobicity and anion-exchange ability (electrostatic interaction). High affinity towards the perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)/perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) molecules (denoted as PFOX collectively) was observed, and >95% PFOX was removed from synthetic groundwater with a flux of 32.3 Lmh at ΔP = 313 Pa. With a higher octanol/water partitioning coefficient (Log K = 6.3) and close dispersion interaction parameter to the membrane backbones (16.6% difference in δ), the effective PFOS removal remained under alkaline and high conductivity conditions due to the intensive hydrophobic interaction compared to that of PFOA. Long-term studies exhibited >90% PFOX removal in an 8 h test with a capacity of 258 L/m. Under mild regeneration conditions, PFOA and PFOS were concentrated by 35-fold and 39-fold, respectively. Overall, the gravity-driven electrospun PVDF-g-QA membranes, with adsorptive effectiveness and ease of regeneration, showed great potential in PFAS remediation.

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