ABSTRACT
The goal of the present work is the Tabas coal preparation plant wastewater treatment using membrane technology. Polyacrylonitrile membrane was prepared through phase inversion method and then developed by annealing process. Also, high fouling resistance membranes were prepared by the embedding of TiO2 nanoparticles using self-assembling and blending methods. The effect of immersion time and TiO2 nanoparticles concentration was investigated using two techniques. The chemical structure, morphology, hydrophilicity, molecular weight cut-off and antifouling properties of membranes were characterized using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, contact angle, polyethylene glycol tracers, and cationic polyacrylamide (C-PAM) filtration, respectively. The optimized self-assembled membrane was shown to have more than 31.2% higher water flux with the best antifouling properties. Improving hydrophilicity leads to excellent antifouling properties for composite membranes and illustrates a promising method for fabrication of high performance membrane for C-PAM separation.