Investigating the Effect of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on the Performance of Polyvinyl Chloride Membranes in the Separation of Humic Acid

Considering the water quality problems and the strict laws established for drinking water treatment, the need to use more effective and economical methods to remove water pollutants is felt. Meanwhile, the use of membrane processes is considered one of the most important methods to remove pollutants as best as possible. Based on this, in the current research, microporous polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membranes containing titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were made using the nonsolvent induction phase separation method for use in humic acid separation as a model of polluted water. The obtained results showed that the membrane containing 3 wt% of nanoparticles has the highest pure water permeability with a value of 146.2 l/m2h. Also, the analysis of the results of humic acid rejection showed that the membrane with 2 wt% of nanoparticles with the smallest average radius of the surface pores had the highest separation efficiency with a value of 80%.