Facile Preparation And Separation Performances Of Cellulose Nanofibrous Membranes

Ultrafiltration (UF) is a size selective pressure-driven membrane separation process increasingly required for high efficient water treatment and suspended solids removal in many industrial applications. This study examined the morphology of as-prepared cellulose nanofibers and then utilized the nanofibers dispersion to fabricate nanofibrous nanoporous membranes with potential wide applications in various fields including water treatment. The nanofibers were prepared using a simple and powerful mechanical high intensity ultrasonication following a pre-chemical treatment of -cellulose. The cellulose nanofibers' morphology, crystallinity, and yield were found to be influenced by pre-chemical treatment. Cellulose nanofibrous membranes were fabricated from cellulose nanofibers dispersion on a porous support. A nanoporous structure with an extensive interconnected network of fine cellulose nanofibers was formed on the support substrate. The resulting membranes exhibited typical and high-efficient UF performances with high water fluxes of up to 2.75 10(3) L/m(2)/h/bar. The membranes also displayed high rejections for ferritin and 10 nm gold nanoparticles with a reactive surface area capable of rapidly decolorizing methylene blue from its aqueous solution. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43544.