Amine Functionalized Mesoporous Silica and Polyurethane Based Membrane for Cationic Natured Dye Removal from Industrial Waste Water

Abstract

Textile, leather, printing, paper, plastic and other industries have been producing large amount of waste water containing harmful dyes now a days. Most dyes that are stable to ultraviolet light are not decomposable in the textile industry. They are also immune to aerobic digestion which makes them a long-term water pollutant. To reduce the risk of contamination, dyes should be treated before they are released into rivers. In the last 3 decades, membrane-based separations have become increasingly common and one of the most exciting 21st century technologies. In the process to refine a wide range of fluids from water and waste water to pharmaceutical and chemical materials, membrane technology is an advanced wastewater treatment technology. Membrane procedure is of greater interest because the unit volume is reduced, process water is recycled and useful materials are recovered for other uses. The current research work was focused on the careful analysis of literature, the research gap and the necessary findings for selecting polymers and the suitable additives for cationic dye removal. Polyurethane displayed a strong anti-fouling property that’s why PU has been chosen as a basic polymer. Since, PU did not provide all the required properties of fabricating membrane that’s why novel composites are blended with it as an additive. Thus, the APTES and MCM-41 based covalent bounded dual natured fillers are prepared that is mixed in appropriate amount (2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%) with PU, which provides high surface area in low volume in the membrane matrix. FTIR analysis was used to elaborate the internal chemistry of polymer and amine/silica based filler, whereas AFM surface morphology described the homogenous distribution of compositional element in membrane blend via its 3D images. AFM technique is also used for grain analysis and surface roughness data. Detail antifouling properties with membrane dye resistance ability described that MCM-41/APTES based membranes just showed 10-11 % ir-reversible resistance with 88-89% flux recovery against dye contaminants. Negligible leaching, higher water adsorption and lower pore size and lesser surface roughness recommend the membrane to be used in dye separation filtration, two model dye name as crystal violet dye (MW: 407.979 g/mol) and Pink dye (MW: 879.86 g/mol) were selected for filtration processes. Results revealed that MCM-41/APTES membrane provided 82-87% clearance rate