Fabrication and characterization of polymer nanocomposites membrane (Cu-MOF@CA/PES) for water treatment

In present work, the hydrophilic Cu-MOF was synthesized by solvothermal method and incorporated with a cellulose acetate (CA)/polyether sulfone (PES) polymer membrane casting solution using a phase inversion approach to create new mixed matrix membranes of nanocomposite membrane material (Cu-MOF@CA-PES). The physical and chemical characteristics of the prepared materials were examined using different analytical techniques such as, FT-IR, XRD, TGA, XPS, SEM, TEM, AFM, BET and contact angle analysis. The membrane performance was analyzed using pure water flux (PWF), Bovine sirup albumin (BSA) and Humic acid (HA) rejection. The maximum water flux was 28.5 L m−2 h−1 with an 85 % BSA rejection rate and a 79 % HA rejection rate respectively and the contact angle value reduced from 75.27° to 46.02° respectively confirming that the modified membrane material is hydrophilic nature. The presence of Cu-MOF membrane material also exhibited outstanding anti-bacterial properties against pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus for gram positive and gram negative. [Display omitted] •Metal organic framework (MOF) is being studied extensively for developments in hybrid membranes due to their binding and attractive interaction in polymers.•Engineered MOFs are used as fillers in ultrafiltration (U-F) polymeric membrane materials, which are designed for long-term water treatment.•Cu-MOF was synthesized by solvothermal method and incorporated with CA/PES polymer membrane casting solution using a phase inversion approach to create new mixed matrix membranes.•The fabricated membrane maximum water flux was 28.5 L m-2 h-1 with an 85% BSA rejection rate and a 79% HA rejection rate respectively and also exhibited outstanding anti-bacterial properties against pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus for gram positive and gram negative.