Positively charged loose nanofiltration membrane grafted by diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DADMAC) via UV for salt and dye removal

A novel positively charged loose nanofiltration (NF) membrane was fabricated feasibly by UV-induced photografting polymerization of diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (DADMAC) on Polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane. A possible reaction mechanism was proposed that a linear chain structure and/or pyrrole   like five-membered nitrogen heterocycles structure on the side chain were grafted to form the active barrier layer. NF membrane demonstrated a looser average pore size of 8.6   nm and positive charges surface. Owing to the nanoscale ultrathin nanoscale barrier layer and the combination of Donnan exclusion and steric hindrance , NF membrane exhibited good hydrophilicity , a high pure flux of 60   L/m 2   h (0.5   MPa), a good salt rejection to Mg 2+ (90.8%), Al 3+ (94.0%), Ca 2+ (91.5%), and a high dye rejection to methylene blue (99.4%) and congo red (100.0%) respectively. The salts rejection of NF membrane to different salts followed the order of AlCl 3   >   CaCl 2   >   MgCl 2   >   NaCl   >   LiCl   >   MgSO 4   >   Na 2 SO 4. NF membrane showed certain fouling resistance to seawater and BSA solution. The grafting polymerization kinetics were comprehensively investigated including irradiation time, monomer concentration and irradiation intensity. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle measurement were employed to investigate membrane chemistry, morphologies, and hydrophilicity.