In this study the efficiency of two different morphologies of polysulfone adsorptive membranes was examined for the humic acid removal from contaminated water. Adsorptive membranes with finger-like and sponge-like pore structures were prepared using modified montmorillonite with amino acid. Structure of fabricated membranes was investigated by Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy, pure water flux, porosity and contact angle measurement. The obtained results showed that the addition of modified montmorillonite (MMT) to the membrane with finger-like structure altered the morphology and improved pure water flux, porosity and hydrophilicity. These changes were negligible in PSf with sponge-like structure. In addition, the adsorption property of these membranes for the removal of humic acid (HA) was extensively studied. Adsorption capacity of cellular membrane was higher than the finger-like structure and Freundlich isotherm model was fitted for both of them. Nevertheless, the membrane with finger-like pores provides rapid adsorption of HA respect to cellular structure. It was also found that increasing the pH until pH=8 enhanced HA removal for adsorptive membranes, but increasing the pH above this point was not favorable. The obtained results from the dynamic adsorption revealed that sponge-like and finger-like membranes could generate 100 mL and 50 mL permeate of high quality (<1 ppm HA in water), respectively.
