حبیب اعتمادی

In this work, effect of the polyaluminum chloride (PAC) coagulant on the antifouling performance of polyvinyl chloride/alumina (PVC/Al2O3) nanocomposite membrane was investigated. The obtained results revealed that the PVC/Al2O3 (1.5 wt.%) membrane had the highest hydrophilicity and porosity compared with the other membranes. FE-SEM images showed that when Al2O3 nanoparticles are present in the PVC membrane, larger pore and bigger macrovoids were formed on the surface and cross-section of the membrane, respectively. The fouling behaviour of membranes was investigated by the filtration of humic acid (HA) solution with and without the PAC coagulant. Without addition of PAC, the PVC/Al2O3 (1.5 wt.%) membrane significantly decreased the irreversible fouling ratio (IFR) from 19.4% to 4.6% and showed a high HA removal of about 90.5%.