Enhanced Cu(II) rejection and fouling reduction through fabrication of PEG-PES nanocomposite ultrafiltration membrane with PEG-coated cobalt doped iron oxide nanoparticle Kian Hwa Chan a , Ee Ting Wong a , Muhammad Irfan a , Ani Idris a, *, Noordin Mohd Yusof b a Department of Bioprocess Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, c/o Institute of Bioproduct Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia b Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia 1. Introduction Copper pollution of the domestic drinking water frequently occurs in the water supply process due to the micro-corrosion of copper fitting or piping in the water plumbing system [1,2]. Since the presence of copper does not alter significantly the taste, color or smell of the drinking water, the contamination of the domestic drinking water by copper always goes unnoticeable. Even though copper is a vital micronutrient for humans, excess accumulation of copper in the human body may cause abdominal diseases such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea [2]. The use of membrane filtration technologies such as ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis show great promise for toxic heavy metal removal in domestic drinking water purification due to its ease of operation and high efficiency [3]. Ultrafiltration membrane has low working pressure and therefore is less expensive and more applicable for household drinking water purification as compared to nanofiltra- tion and reverse osmosis membrane that operated at high transmembrane pressure. Since ultrafiltration offers a higher filtration or permeation rate, it has low metal ions rejection due to its bigger pore sizes, therefore these metallic ions can pass easily through the membrane matrix. In order to enhance the metallic ions rejection of the ultrafiltration membrane, micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) and polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) were used [4,5]. But, these techniques consumed large quantities of chelating agents that rendered their usage unattractive in domestic drinking water application. Besides membrane filtration, adsorption is also known as one of the effective and budget saving method in heavy metallic ions water treatment [3]. In domestic drinking water purification system, activated carbon adsorbent is one of the common and cheap adsorbents that widely used for the removal of heavy metals ions as well as the dissolve organic matter [6–8]. Besides activated carbon, many studies were also performed on the iron oxide nanoparticle or doped iron oxide nanoparticle such as manganese ferrite, cobalt ferrite and silver ferrite as an effective adsorbent in Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers xxx (2014) xxx–xxx A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 10 August 2014 Received in revised form 26 September 2014 Accepted 28 September 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Cobalt doped iron oxide Nanomodified PEG-PES ultrafiltration membrane Nanomodification Cu(II) rejection Antifouling A B S T R A C T Membrane modified by adding nanoparticles coined as nanomodified membrane is another latest trend in membrane technology. This paper investigates the influence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated cobalt doped iron oxide (Co-Fe 2 O 3 ) nanoparticles on the morphological and properties of (PES) ultrafiltration membrane (UF). The synthesized Co-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles were coated with different concentrations of PEG solutions to prevent them from agglomeration and then added to the PES/DMF dope solutions. The performance of the nanomodified membranes was then compared to the control PEG/PES/DMF dope solutions in terms of flux rates and Cu(II) removal at various operating conditions. The antifouling properties were determined using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the model foulant. Findings revealed that the Cu(II) removal efficiency of the nanomodified membranes was enhanced considerably (as high as 96%) and the antifouling properties improved. In order to obtain membranes with high Cu(II) removal and reasonable flux rates the concentration of nanoparticles must be kept at 6% but PEG coating concentration high (6–9%); with ratio of PEG coating to Co-Fe 2 O 3 kept more than 1.0. ß 2014 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 75535603; fax: +60 75588166. E-mail address: ani@cheme.utm.my (A. Idris). G Model JTICE-1050; No. of Pages 9 Please cite this article in press as: Chan KH, et al. Enhanced Cu(II) rejection and fouling reduction through fabrication of PEG-PES nanocomposite ultrafiltration membrane with PEG-coated cobalt doped iron oxide nanoparticle. J Taiwan Inst Chem Eng (2014), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2014.09.033 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers jou r nal h o mep age: w ww.els evier .co m/lo c ate/jtic e http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2014.09.033 1876-1070/ß 2014 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.