Permeable and antifouling PSf‐Cys‐CuO ultrafiltration membrane for separation of biological macromolecules proteins

摘要: Membrane technology has been extensively applied for protein separation. A membrane with reliable filtration performance and high removal efficiency is required. In this study, an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane was fabricated by dry‐wet phase inversion to incorporate copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) with a different ratio of L‐cysteine (Cys) in polysulfone (PSf). The characterization of the membrane involves using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle, water content, pore size, and porosity analysis. The membrane performance evaluation includes flux permeation and bovine serum albumin (BSA) removal as a protein foulant. The membrane antifouling feature was examined by dynamic filtration of BSA. It was found that the Cys to CuO NPs ratio of 1.7:1 gives an optimal value on flux permeation and protein removal. The membrane exhibited high removal of BSA with 96.3%, and optimum …