HEAVY METAL REMOVAL USING MIXED MATRIX MEMBRANE INCORPORATED WITH MONTMORILLONITE

The removal of heavy metal by using mixed matrix membrane (MMM) incorporated with montmorillonite (MMT) was studied. In general, MMM referred to membrane that consists of polymers filled with inorganic material in order to enhance the membrane’s chemical and physical properties particularly in water separation application. In this study, MMM was prepared using polysulfone (PSf) polymer incorporated with MMT and casted using phase inversion technique. The prepared membrane were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) to analyze the functional groups, Scanning Electron Microscopy�Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) to observe the membrane cross section morphology and conduct elemental analysis, and water uptake analysis to know the membrane capability to absorb water. Then, the performance of prepared membranes were evaluated in terms pure water flux and capability of the membrane to remove heavy metal in wastewater. Based on the membrane performance, 1.0MMM was the most preferred as it has significant rejection of cadmium and lead as well as high pure water flux, surface porosity and permeate flux