Sustainable nanohybrid modified polyphenylsulfone ultrafiltration membranes for efficient protein separation

Present work describes the development of performance enhancement of polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) membranes by incorporating polyaniline nanofiber-bentonite (PANI-bentonite) nanohybrid in the membrane matrix via immersion precipitation method, as an effective strategy for removing proteins from contaminated water. The hydrophilic PANI-bentonite nanohybrid was successfully synthesized and characterized. Several instrumental techniques like SEM, AFM, TEM, EDX and BET analysis were used to study the morphological changes during the incorporation of nanohybrid in the PPSU membranes. Experimental results revealed that hydrophilic PANI-bentonite content in the membrane is responsible for the formation of an effective cavities in the composite membranes and enhanced properties like porosity, hydrophilicity and water intake abilities of the modified PPSU composite membranes. Moreover, inclusion of PANI-bentonite nanohybrid increased the permeability and showed the highest results for PBM-2 membrane, which showed a permeability of 181 Lm −2 h −1 bar −1 compared to the pristine membrane with a permeability 106 Lm −2 h −1 bar −1 . The outcomes of the various studies showed that the nanocomposite membrane's fouling resistance increased from 51.4 % for the pristine membrane to 82.8 % for the PBM-2 membrane. Protein filtration efficiency analysis of the developed membranes revealed that PBM-2 membrane with 1 w% PANI-bentonite has high rejection for BSA, egg albumin and pepsin, exhibited 96.7 %, 95.2 % and 68.8 % efficiencies respectively. • PANI nanofiber-bentonite nanohybrid was synthesized and PPSU/PANI-bentonite composite ultrafiltration membranes were fabricated. • Characterization and performance evaluation of the fabricated membranes by various methods was carried out. • Experimental results proved that hydrophilic PANI-bentonite content in the membrane enhanced membrane performance. • Fabricated membranes have showed increased rejection efficiencies for BSA, egg albumin and pepsin.