Polyurethane (PU) nanofibers have gained attention due to their good mechanical properties and water resistance. However, the applicability in water filtration is limited due to their hydrophobic nature. A new class of high performance fouling tolerant hydrophilic PU based nanofibrous membranes have been fabricated by an electrospinning technique. The electrospun parameters of the PU systems were thoroughly optimized for ideal fiber diameter and fiber morphology suitable for water filtration. The effects of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) concentration in membrane morphology, as well as physical and chemical properties of the developed membranes, were studied. PU/PVP exhibited improved hydrophilicity, which was confirmed from the contact angle and protein adsorption results. Under low pressure, all PVP modified membranes showed a water flux higher than that of 1000 lm⁻² h⁻¹. Furthermore, the PU/PVP membranes exhibited good rejection performance, higher than 80% for olive oil and 99% for gingelly oil. The results showed that the incorporation of PVP into the PU membrane caused a significant improvement in the antifouling property and membrane performance. Antifouling properties of the developed membrane were investigated using the Hermia model and the fouling mechanism is fitted with a cake filtration model. All these results showed that electrospun PU/PVP nanofibrous membrane could be a promising candidate for cost effective water treatment.

中文翻译：

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用于水处理的聚氨酯基耐污纳米纤维膜的量身定制设计†

聚氨酯（PU）纳米纤维由于其良好的机械性能和耐水性而受到关注。但是，由于其疏水性，在水过滤中的适用性受到限制。通过静电纺丝技术已经制备了新型的高性能耐污亲水性PU基纳米纤维膜。PU系统的电纺参数已针对理想的纤维直径和适合水过滤的纤维形态进行了彻底优化。研究了聚乙烯吡咯烷酮（PVP）浓度对膜形态的影响以及已开发膜的物理和化学性质。PU / PVP表现出改善的亲水性，这从接触角和蛋白质吸附结果得到证实。在低压下^-2小时^-1。此外，PU / PVP膜表现出良好的排斥性能，对橄榄油而言高于80％，对齿龈油脂而言高达99％。结果表明，PVP掺入PU膜中引起防污性能和膜性能的显着改善。使用Hermia模型研究了已开发膜的防污性能，并且污垢机理符合滤饼过滤模型。所有这些结果表明，静电纺制的PU / PVP纳米纤维膜可能是具有成本效益的水处理的有前途的候选者。