Authors: A L Carvalho F Maugeri V Silva A Hernández L Palacio P Pradanos
Publish Date: 2011/01/14
Volume: 46, Issue: 10, Pages: 3356-3369
Abstract
This study presents the structural characterization of the surface of four commercial nanofiltration membranes NF90 polyamide and NF polypiperazine amide from FilmtecTM and NP010 and NP030 polysulfone from Microdyn Nadir® by Atomic Force Microscopy AFM These membranes have been studied before and after undergoing a filtration process with potassium clavulanate The fast Fourier filtering of AFM images with very high magnification 40 × 40 nm has allowed identifying the pore size distribution and geometry of the pores on the surface of the membrane before their use Images between 05 × 05 and 10 × 10 μm2 have allowed the study of the surface roughness of the samples before and after being used to filtrate potassium clavulanate solutions The results of roughness and power spectral fractal dimension along with the skewness and kurtosis of the height distribution have been analyzed in terms of pore size hydraulic permeability and the adsorption of clavulanate for the different samplesBrazilians authors acknowledge the financial support from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior CAPES and the State of São Paulo Research Foundation FAPESP Spanish authors want to thank the “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación MCINN” for financing this study within the frame of the “Plan Nacional de I+D+I” and through the project CTQ200907666 Also the Spanish “Junta de Castilla y León” has contributed through the project Grupos de ExcelenciaGR18 The authors also acknowledge FilmtecTM and Microdyn Nadir® fir the donation of the membranes
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