Tailoring Morphology and Properties of Tight Utrafiltration Membranes by Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Disulfide for Performance Improvement

To enhance the permeation and separation performance of the polyethersulfone (PES) tight ultrafiltration (TUF) membrane, two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) was applied as a modifier in low concentrations. The influence of different concentrations of MoS(2) (0, 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, and 1.50 wt%) on TUF membranes was investigated in terms of morphology, mechanical strength properties, permeation, and separation. The results indicate that the blending of MoS(2) tailored the microstructure of the membrane and enhanced the mechanical strength property. Moreover, by embedding an appropriate amount of MoS(2) into the membrane, the PES/MoS(2) membranes showed improvement in permeation and without the sacrifice of the rejection of bovine serum protein (BSA) and humic acid (HA). Compared with the pristine membrane, the modified membrane embedded with 0.5 wt% MoS(2) showed a 36.08% increase in the pure water flux, and >99.6% rejections of BSA and HA. This study reveals that two-dimensional MoS(2) can be used as an effective additive to improve the performance and properties of TUF membranes for water treatment.