Vol.:(0123456789) Polymer Bulletin https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-019-02758-3 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Study on the efect of m‑phenylenediamine as a cross‑linking agent on the mechanical, chemical and thermal properties and performance of cellulose acetate/nanodiamond membranes Haleh Nourizadeh Kazerouni 1,2  · Yoones Jafarzadeh 1,2  · Reza Yegani 1,2 Received: 3 January 2019 / Revised: 19 March 2019 / Accepted: 25 March 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract In this study, cellulose acetate (CA) membrane was cross-linked via m-phenylenedi- amine (m-PDA) to improve its mechanical, chemical and thermal properties. At frst, membranes containing 0.25 wt%, 0.50 wt%, 0.75 wt% and 1.00 wt% cross-linker were prepared. Contact angle measurement, mean pore radius, porosity, water con- tent, tensile strength, elongation and pure water fux analysis were performed char- acterization of the membranes. The results indicated that optimum concentration of m-PDA was 0.25 wt%. Thus, diferent amounts of carboxylated nanodiamonds (ND- COOH) were added to 0.25 wt% cross-linked cellulose acetate to increase abra- sion resistance and pure water fux of membranes. The results of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confrmed that ND nanoparticles were successfully carboxylated. Membranes containing 0.25 wt% m-PDA and diferent percentages (0.25, 0.50, 0,75 and 1.00 wt%) of ND-COOH were prepared, and the results of con- tact angle measurement, mean pore radius, porosity, water content, tensile strength, elongation and pure water fux analyses indicated that the optimum concentration of nanoparticles was 0.25 wt% of ND-COOH. CA, CA/m-PDA (0.25 wt%) and CA/m- PDA (0.25 wt%)/ND-COOH (0.25 wt%) membranes were characterized by abrasion resistance, FTIR, feld emission scanning electron microscopy, chlorine resistance and diferential scanning calorimetry analyses. Moreover, the performance of neat CA and optimum membranes was studied by fltration of humic acid solution in a dead-end system. It was found that CA/m-PDA (0.25 wt%) membrane had the high- est rejection and better fux recovery ratio after physical cleaning. Keywords Cross-linking · Membrane · Cellulose acetate · Phenylenediamine · Nanodiamonds * Yoones Jafarzadeh yjafarzadeh@sut.ac.ir 1 Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran 2 Membrane Technology Research Center, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran