Preparation and characterization of microfiltration membrane based on polyethylene terephthalate nanofibrous support

Abstract

The new class of microfiltration (MF) membranes based on nanofibrous sub-layers was investigated in this study. To this end, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanofibrous layers were produced via electrospinning technique based on PET supports as baking material, and subsequently, the solvent vapor treatment was applied for pore size modification of nanofibrous membranes. Capillary flow porometry and scanning electron microscopy were used to evaluate of pore size and morphology of the membranes, respectively. Moreover, filtration performance was evaluated by water flux and microparticle/bacteria retention. The results showed that average pore size of PET electrospun nanofibrous membrane was greatly reduced from 1.2 to 0.4 µm during modification process. Solvent vapor-treated MF membranes show significantly higher flux and acceptable rejection compared to commercial MF membranes. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023.