Effect of nanoboehmite/poly(ethylene glycol) on the performance and physiochemical attributes EPVC nano-composite membranes in protein separation

•Effect of PEG concentration on EPVC/boehmite membrane performance was tested.•Simultaneous use of boehmite NPs and pore former have synergistic effect.•PEG amount effect on performance of EPVC and EPVC/boehmite membranes was different.•Antifouling ability of EPVC/boehmite membrane containing PEG was improved.•EPVC/boehmite nanocomposite membrane by 2 wt.% PEG exhibited excellent performance. The synergistic effect of nanoboehmite particles and various amounts of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG 4000, 0−4 wt.%) as a pore-former agent on the characteristics, permeability and fouling resistance ability of the nanoboehmite/EPVC blended membranes has been investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle analyses were utilized to examine the morphology, surface roughness, nanoboehmite dispersion and surface hydrophilicity, respectively. By increasing the PEG content in the EPVC dope solution, hydrophilicity, porosity and pores diameter improved, leading to the performance promotion of the membranes. The pure water flux (PWF), flux recovery ratio (FRR) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) flux of the nanoboehmite/EPVC composite membrane improved by enhancing the PEG loading up to 2 wt.% and then they dropped at higher content of it. Anti-fouling ability of the mixed-matrix nanoboehmite/EPVC composite membrane including 2 wt.% of PEG had a dramatic growth (68.3%) relative to the pristine EPVC membrane. Moreover, all the membranes were able to reject BSA proteins more than 98%. The obtained results displayed that the influence of PEG concentration enhancement on the characteristics and efficiency of the EPVC and EPVC/nano-composite membrane was different. The addition of various amounts of PEG to the nano-composite membranes matrix has not unfavorably influenced the amount of BSA rejection and membrane structure.