Synthesis of porous cellulose acetate membrane from cigarette butts for water filtration

Abstract

Cigarette butts which are the source of cellulose acetate were used for the production of porous cellulose acetate membrane for water filtration. A series of different concentration of cellulose acetate membrane mixed with 1-methyl-2-pyrollidone was prepared by phase inversion technique. The permeation test was conducted using dead end filtration equipment (Sterlitech HP4750). The characterization of the membranes such as morphology and the functional group that present in the membranes was investigated using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transforms Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Permeation test was Brown cigarette butts membrane has a better morphology compared to white cigarette butts membrane in terms of its structure. Both brown and white cigarette butts membrane had higher rejection at 14 wt%. Brown cigarette butts membrane found to give the highest permeability of 7.59 kg/m2.h.bar with 94.3% rejection. White cigarette butts membrane of 15 wt% had the highest pure water permeability with 1.43 kg/m2.h.bar at 5 bar feed pressure while the lowest pure water permeability was obtained by performed to calculate the permeability and rejection of the porous cellulose acetate membranes. Cellulose acetate membrane from the brown and white cigarette butts was successfully synthesized.