Ethanol activation of polyester membrane for superior dye/salt separation performance

Dye wastewater poses a severe danger to the environment and human health. The purification of dye wastewater is the focus and hotspot of most researchers. In this work, ethylene glycol (EG) was selected as an aqueous phase monomer to fabricate polyester membranes through an interfacial polymerization reaction. Then the polyester membrane was activated by ethanol aqueous solution. By adjusting the activation time and concentration of the ethanol, the network of the polyester membrane can be reshaped to endow the membrane with excellent performance. The activation mechanism was also explored here. Compared to the membrane without activation (PE-0%), the permeability of the optimized membrane (PE-40%) was increased by 8.3 times, and a high rejection was maintained (CR: 99.2%). Importantly, the PE-40% membrane also presented good acid and alkali resistance, chlorine resistance, and excellent antifouling performance. Our work provides an effective and feasible strategy for the development of high-performance polyester membranes.