Resilient forward osmosis membranes against microplastics fouling enhanced by MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH₂ hybrid nanoparticles

The escalating presence of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater necessitates the investigation of effective tertiary treatment process. Forward osmosis (FO) emerges as an effective non-pressurized membrane process, however, for the effective implementation of FO systems, the development of fouling-resistance FO membranes with high-performance is essential. This study focuses on the integration of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH₂ as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) nanocomposites in thin film composite (TFC) FO membranes, harnessing the synergistic power of hybrid nanoparticles in FO membranes. The results showed that the addition of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH₂ in the aqueous phase during polyamide formation changed the polyamide surface structure, and enhanced membranes’ hydrophilicity by 44%. The water flux of the modified FO membrane incorporated with 0.1 wt% MWCNTs/UiO-66-NH₂ increased by 67% and the reverse salt flux decreased by 22% as in comparison with the control membrane. Moreover, the modified membrane showed improved antifouling behavior against both organic foulant and MPs. The MWCNT/UiO-66-NH₂ membrane experienced 35% flux decline while the control membrane experienced 65% flux decline. This proves that the integration of MWCNT/UiO-66-NH₂ nanoparticles into TFC FO membranes is a viable approach in creating advanced FO membranes with high antifouling propensity with potential to be expanded further to other membrane applications.