Fabrication of a novel cellulose acetate imprinted membrane assisted with chitosan-wrapped multi-walled carbon nanotubes for selective separation of salicylic acid from industrial wastewater

Highly selective cellulose acetate (CA) blend imprinted membranes for salicylic acid (SA) removal were synthesized by phase inversion technique with chitosan as a functional polymer and chitosan-wrapped multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CHI-wrapped MWCNTs) as the additives. The surface and cross-sectional morphology of membranes were strongly affected by the amount of CHI-wrapped MWCNTs. As compared to M₁-MIM, M₂-MIM, and M₄-MIM, the M₃-MIM with 2.0 wt % CHI-wrapped MWCNTs showed higher membrane flux, faster kinetic, binding capacity and better selectivity for SA. The experimental data of adsorption kinetic were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model by multiple regression analysis. The M₃-MIM had the maximum adsorption capacity for SA. The selectivity coefficients of SA to p-hydroxybenzoic acid (p-HB) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) over M₃-MIM were 6.3090 and 6.0019, respectively, showing that M₃-MIM had excellent binding affinity and selectivity for separation of SA from SA-contained aqueous solution.