Fluoride Removal Using Nanofiltration-Ranged Polyamide Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membrane Incorporated Titanium Oxide Nanosheets.

Drinking water defluoridation has attracted significant attention in the scientific community, from which membrane technology, by exploring thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes, has demonstrated a great potential for treating fluoride-contaminated water. This study investigates the development of a TFN membrane by integrating titanium oxide nanosheets (TiO 2 NSs) into the polyamide (PA) layer using interfacial polymerization. The characterization results suggest that successfully incorporating TiO 2 NSs into the PA layer of the TFN membrane led to a surface with a high negative charge, hydrophilic properties, and a smooth surface at the nanoscale. The TFN membrane, containing 80 ppm of TiO 2 NSs, demonstrated a notably high fluoride rejection rate of 98%. The Donnan-steric-pore-model-dielectric-exclusion model was employed to analyze the effect of embedding TiO 2 NSs into the PA layer of TFN on membrane properties, including charge density (X d ), the pore radius (r p ), and pore dielectric constant (ε p ). The results indicated that embedding TiO 2 NSs increased X d and decreased the εp by less than the TFC membrane without significantly affecting the r p . The resulting TFN membrane demonstrates promising potential for application in water treatment systems, providing an effective and sustainable solution for fluoride remediation in drinking water.