P95

Polyaniline-TiO₂ nanocomposite hollow fibre membranes for dye removal applications

Dye effluents from particularly from industries like textile, leather, and dye-manufacturing contain very high concentrations of synthetic dyes that are stable and often resistant to natural biodegradation. These dyes not only impart color to water bodies but also introduce toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic compounds creating serious environmental and health concerns. Hollow fibre polymer membranes have been widely used for various applications, such as dye rejection, wastewater treatment, gas separately due to high selectivity and excellent productivity. In the current study thee hollowfibre membrane performance have been modified by incorporating Polyaniline-TiO₂ nanocomposite additives to achieve desired properties. The addition of Polyaniline-TiO₂ nanocomposite enhanced antifouling nature and hydrophilicity of the prepared membranes. The prepared membranes were examined for dye rejection of Reactive Black 5 and Reactive Orange 16 dyes.  The hollow fibre membranes with 1.0 wt% of PANI–TiO₂ showed a maximum rejection of 81.5% and 96.5% for Reactive Black 5 and Reactive Orange 16, respectively and can be used as a potential candidate for industrial dye rejection.