Fabrication and performance evaluation of blood compatible hemodialysis membrane using carboxylic multiwall carbon nanotubes and low molecular weight polyvinylpyrrolidone based nanocomposites Muhammad Irfan, 1,3,4 Masooma Irfan, 2 Ani Idris, 3,4 Nadeem Baig, 5 Tawfik A. Saleh, 5 Rozita Nasiri, 3,4 Younas Iqbal, 6 Nawshad Muhammad, 1 Fozia Rehman, 1 Hamad Khalid 1 1 Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Lahore Campus, Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan 2 Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Lahore Campus, Defence Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan 3 Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Institute of Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia 4 Department of Bioprocess and Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia 5 Chemistry Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia 6 Faculty of Science, Technology and Human Development, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia Received 7 April 2018; revised 6 September 2018; accepted 28 September 2018 Published online 00 Month 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/jbm.a.36566 Abstract: This study focused to optimize the performance of polyethersulfone (PES) hemodialysis (HD) membrane using car- boxylic functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (c-MWCNT) and lower molecular weight grade of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP- k30). Initially, MWCNT were chemically functionalized by acid treatment and nanocomposites (NCs) of PVP-k30 and c-MWCNT were formed and subsequently blended with PES polymer. The spectra of FTIR of the HD membranes revealed that NCs has strong hydrogen bonding and their addition to PES polymer improved the capillary system of membranes as confirmed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and leaching of the additive decreased to 2% and hydrophilicity improved to 22%. The pore size and porosity of NCs were also enhanced and rejection rate was achieved in the establish dialysis range (<60 kDa). The antifouling studies had shown that NCs membrane exhibited 30% less adhesion of protein with 80% flux recovery ratio. The blood compatibility assessment dis- closed that NCs based membranes showed prolonged thrombin and prothrombin clotting times, lessened production of fibrino- gen cluster, and greatly suppressed adhesion of blood plasma than a pristine PES membrane. The results also unveiled that PVP-k30/NCs improved the surface properties of the membrane and the urea and creatinine removal increased to 72% and 75% than pure PES membranes. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 00A: 000–000, 2018. Key Words: Polyethersulfone, PVP-k30, carboxylic-MWCNT, hemodialysis, blood compatibility How to cite this article: Irfan M, Irfan M, Idris A, Baig N, Saleh TA, Nasiri R, Iqbal Y, Muhammad N, Rehman F, Khalid H. 2018. Fabrication and performance evaluation of blood compatible hemodialysis membrane using carboxylic multiwall carbon nano- tubes and low molecular weight polyvinylpyrrolidone based nanocomposites. J Biomed Mater Res Part A. 2018:9999:1–13. INTRODUCTION Hemodialysis (HD) treatment becomes a necessity to remove uremic toxins from the blood plasma when the human kidney is unable to function or damaged. A semipermeable mem- brane is considered a principal component of a dialysis instru- ment whose composition has great influence on the patient’s health. 1 There are many different polymeric membranes used for HD treatment, but polyarylsulfone family is considered as the most suitable for membrane synthesis, worldwide that covered 93% of the total share of dialysis membranes. 2 Polyethersulfone (PES) is a member of the polyarylsulfone family and chemical resistant plastic. It is used in dialysis treatment and its demand is increasing, as it is considered a bisphenol-A free membrane than polysulfone. 3 PES based mem- branes are also used for the refinement of blood such as hemo- filtration, hemodiafiltration, and plasma collection due to its stability in aqueous environment throughout the separation processes. 4 On its own, the biocompatibility and performance of pristine HD PES membrane has its limitations. When PES-based membranes comes into contact with blood, the proteins were rapidly adsorbed on to the polymer surface followed by platelet adhesion that led to the blood coagulation processes. These reactions limit the use of PES membranes in the blood contact- ing application which ultimately affects the patient health. 4,5 Correspondence to: A. Idris; e-mail: aniidris@utm.my or M. Irfan; e-mail: masooma.uthm@gmail.com © 2018 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. 1