Preparation and Characterization of Antifouling Mixed Matrix Microfiltration Membranes Modified by Metal-Organic Frameworks for Usage in Membrane Bioreactor (MBR)

This study presents the preparation, characterization, and performance evaluation of antifouling mixed matrix microfiltration membranes. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as nanofiller on the fabrication of polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) mixed matrix membrane prepared via the phase inversion method. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images displayed that the pore size and porosity of the prepared membranes was increased by adding the MOF. By adding 0.3 wt% of the MOF, the pure water flux was maximized to be 1525.37 kg/ m2.h, which was owing to the excellent permeability of the MOF/PVDF membrane during the long-term filtration in cross flow setup. The flux recovery ratio (FRR) was also increased up to 80%. In order to assess antifouling performance of the modified membrane, the fouling parameters was evaluated using the effluent from the jet loop-airlift reactor with the turbidity of 11 NTU as a fouling factor. The 0.3 wt.% TMU-5 MOFs/PVDF membrane showed the high hydrophilicity with contact angle of 66.93° and the lowest irreversible fouling resistance (Rir) value of 4.55%. As a conclusion, the MOF/PVDF membranes represented good selectivity and antifouling properties during long-term microfiltration experiments.