Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Iron oxide nanoparticles incorporated polyvinyldene fluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membranes for industrial wastewater treatment

3^rd International Conference on Nanotek & Expo

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Anum Imtiaz, Sher Jamal Khan, ErumAamir, Ishtiaq A. Qazi, Nadeem Iqbal and Nasir M. Ahmed

Accepted Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

Iron oxide nanomaterial has a great potential for the degradation of halogenated organics, nitrates, sulfates and heavy metals. The present investigation reports the effect of iron oxide nanoparticles on the morphological, water flux, monovalent salts and heavy metal rejection properties of the polyvinyldiene fluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membranes. Iron oxide particles were synthesized using co-precipitation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed crystalline face-centered nano- particles with average diameter of 30-35 nm observed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Induced concentrations of 1, 3, and 5% with the functionalized nanoparticles were impregnated in the membrane solution to fabricate polymer nano- composite membranes. Thermally induced phase separation method was applied to generate micro porosity in the developed membranes and characterized for microstructure and morphology by SEM, EDX, XRD and FTIR analysis. The average pore size within the membrane reduced, and ultrapure water flux diminished with increasing functionalized nanoparticle concentration in the polymer solution and nano fillers into the matrix ratio, respectively. The rejection studies were investigated at different concentrations of heavy metals including Cd (II) and Cu (II) as well as pH using dead end filtration cell (Amicon, Model 8400 Millipore, USA). Atomic absorption spectroscopy results show high sorption of Cd (II) and Cu (II) by iron oxide nanomaterials impregnated PVDF membranes.