Preparation and Characterization of Novel Membrane from Waste Polyethylene terephthalate and Bio-based Polymer

Abstract

Abstract A large amount of post-consumer Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle waste could be recycled for downstream products. In this work, used PET bottles were utilized as a raw material to develop environmentally-friendly ultrafiltration membranes by phase inversion technique. Poly(ethylene-2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF), prepared from a sustainable bio-based monomer, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), was blended into rPET matrix to improve the mechanical properties of the membrane. Ethanol was also used as a non-solvent in a coagulation bath and polyethylene glycol (PEG) with a molecular weight of 400 Da was added as a hydrophilic additive. The effects of PEF and PEG incorporation to waste PET-based membranes have been thoroughly studied. The morphology of obtained membrane was investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The membrane’s permeation and resistance were tested using a pressure-driven dead-end membrane module. The result revealed that adding PEF increased the roughness of the membrane surface, which lowered the flux recovery ratio and rejection performance. However, the filtration performance and the membrane resistance could be improved by adjusting the content of the PEG additive.