Application of novel nanofiltration membranes embedded with mesoporous carbon based nanoparticles for desalination and dye removal

In this research, the application of mesoporous carbon CMK-3 and modified CMK-3 (M-CMK-3) to improve antifouling and rejection rate of polyethersulfone nanofiltration (NF) membrane was assessed. CMK-3 was modified with H-acid to increase hydrophilic characteristics of CMK-3. The synthesized CMK-3 and M-CMK-3 membranes revealed high values of pure water flux and flux recovery ratio (up to 95%) compared to bare NF membrane. Also, the performances of the membranes with optimum additive loading (0.1 wt%) of CMK-3 and M-CMK-3 in terms of rejecting different salts and dyes were compared. From the obtained results, the membrane embedded with M-CMK-3 showed higher rejection rate rather than bare NF membrane (up to 95% for Na2SO4 and 64% for CaCl2). As a result, the flux permeability was increased from 6.44 kg/m(2) h for bare NF membrane to 20.11 kg/m(2) h for the membrane embedded with M-CMK-3 with optimum additive loading. A higher rejection data for different dyes under different pH conditions (up to 90%) were reported for the synthesized membrane embedded with M-CMK-3. After all, from the obtained data, M-CMK-3 with higher negative surface charge presented a higher performance to remove salts and dyes rather than CMK-3. Therefore, M-CMK-3 could be a proper proposed additive to develop cost-effective NF membranes with high antifouling properties and super high filtration capacity for removing dyes and salts from wastewaters.