Prof. Irshad Kammakakam Investigates Novel Polymer Membranes for Enhanced Oil/Water Emulsion Separation
A novel methodology to finetune polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes utilizing oil/water emulsion separation has been reported by Prof. Irshad Kammakakam and his collaborators from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia. They have developed the synthesis of a novel carboxylate-terminated hyperbranched polyethylenimine (CHPEI) using a facile three-step one-pot strategy to enhance the characteristics of PVDF membranes for oil/water emulsion separation. The incorporation of CHPEI into PVDF positively enhanced the hydrophilicity, and the WCA was significantly reduced from 80.6° to 59.5°. The maximum permeation flux was obtained using CHPEI-3-PVDF membranes, which was 200 % more than that obtained using pristine PVDF. The CHPEI-2-PVDF membranes exhibited a rejection performance of >99 % for separating oil-in-water emulsions. The incorporation of CHPEI into PVDF significantly improved the antifouling characteristics of the membranes. CHPEI has demonstrated a considerable positive influence in improving the PVDF membrane’s performance, making it an excellent candidate for oily wastewater treatment because of its high rejection performance and excellent flux recovery ratio.