Nanocellulose acetate membranes: Preparation and application

Abstract

In this work, chemical hydrolysis and ball milling (chemical-hydrolysis-ball-milling) were combined to produce cellulose acetate nanoparticles (CA-NPs). This method has been exhibiting more efficiency to synthesize CA-NPs. CA-NPs were successfully obtained using chemical-hydrolysis-ball-milling of Iraqi cotton through three stages namely bleaching, cellulose esterification, and milling. Cellulose acetate membranes (CA-NPs-membrane) were prepared by expanded of a saturated solution of cellulose acetate nanoparticles onto a glass surface. Cross-flow filtrations mode was carried out to evaluate membrane performance in removing salt from water. CA-NPs and CA-NPs-membrane were characterized via FTIR, TEM, and FE-SEM. Electrical conductivity (EC) was used to evaluate the performance of the synthesized CA-NP-membrane to remove salts from their aqueous solution. The characterization showed that the CA-NPs have a non-uniform spherical shape with an average diameter of less than 40 nm. The conductivity of water passing through the CA-NPs-membrane reduced from 984 to 1.8 μs at a flow rate of 0.7 L/min. Wherefore, CA-NPs-membrane can be used efficiently for desalination applications due to its good characteristics.