Enhanced performance of mixed matrix PVDF/TA membranes in treating wastewater containing heavy metals and organics

Industrial wastewater is complex, containing a significant amount of heavy metals and organics, which needs complicated traditional treatment processes. Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes process can remove various organic pollutants, but exhibit no removal capacity for heavy metal. In this work, we directly blended tannic acid (TA) with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to fabricate membranes, based on the chelating ability. TA not only improves heavy metal adsorption properties to the membrane but also enhances its acid resistance. The PVDF/TA membrane maintained over 99 % remove rate to Fe 3+ in five adsorption–desorption tests and also exhibited effective rejection of bovine serum albumin after the cycling test. The PVDF/TA membrane achieved efficient treating processing of oil and Fe 3+ mixed solutions, with 100 % rejection for oil and over 99 % for Fe 3+ . In this study, the PVDF/TA membranes presented tremendous potential for application in complex wastewater treatment.