NANOPOR POLYMER-INORGANIC FLAT MEMBRANES FOR PESTICIDE CONCENTRATION

Industrial pesticide plants wastewater po­ses a danger to the environment due to of the exceed of threshold limit value of concentration. It causes to fines and the loss of valuable commercial products. This work proposes a problem solution comprising the removal of pesticides from water by the baromembrane method. The advantages of this approach are obtaining a concentrate of pesticides by the non-destructive method. Polymer-inorganic membranes have been developed to remove pesticides from water. They were obtained by modifying the active layer of commercial micro- and ultrafiltration membranes with nanoparticles of hydrated zirconium dioxide (HZD) with size 10−100 nm. Modification changes the porous structure of active layer due to the formation of gaps between the incorporated nanoparticles as well the polymers hydrolysis. It was established the pore with size 4−33 nm determines the separation properties of the modified membranes. The modifier nanoparticles are located in the active layer. They provide secondary porosity that prevents irreversible contamination of the obtained materials. The membranes were tested with aqueous solutions of commercial pesticides that active ingredient are benzoic acid derivatives and sulfonylurea. It was found sequential filtration under low pressure (up to 2 atm) through po­lymer-inorganic membranes with larger and smaller pores and following adsorption by biochar reduces the content of pesticides in water below the threshold limit value concentrations. For example, the final content of the sulfonylurea derivative was 0.0005 g dm-3. The obtained concentrate can be used as a commercial product.