Hybrid PET Track-Etched Membranes Grafted by Well-Defined Poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) Brushes and Loaded with Silver Nanoparticles for the Removal of As(III)

Nanoporous track-etched membranes (TeM) are promising materials as adsorbents to remove toxic pollutants, but control over the pore diameter and density in addition to precise functionalization of nanochannels is crucial for controlling the surface area and efficiency of TeMs. This study reported the synthesis of functionalized PET TeMs as high-capacity sorbents for the removal of trivalent arsenic, As(III), which is more mobile and about 60 times more toxic than As(V). Nanochannels of PET-TeMs were functionalized by UV-initiated reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)-mediated grafting of 2-(dimethyamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA), allowing precise control of the degree of grafting and graft lengths within the nanochannels. Ag NPs were then loaded onto PDMAEMA-g-PET to provide a hybrid sorbent for As(III) removal. The As(III) removal efficiency of Ag@PDMAEMA-g-PET, PDMAEMA-g-PET, and pristine PET TeM was compared by adsorption kinetics studies at various pH and sorption times. The adsorption of As(III) by Ag@DMAEMA-g-PET and DMAEMA-g-PET TeMs was found to follow the Freundlich mechanism and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. After 10 h, As(III) removal efficiencies were 85.6% and 56% for Ag@PDMAEMA-g-PET and PDMAEMA-g-PET, respectively, while PET template had a very low arsenic sorption capacity of 17.5% at optimal pH of 4.0, indicating that both PDMAEMA grafting and Ag-NPs loading significantly increased the As(III) removal capacity of PET-TeMs.