Study on Application of Novel
Synthesized Silver Metallosurfactant
for Membrane Cleaning
Ankita Mazumder, Zinnia Chowdhury, Dwaipayan Sen,
and Chiranjib Bhattacharjee
Abstract Membrane separation technology used for the treatment of emulsified oily
wastewater generating from different industries faces an intrinsic fouling problem
that occurs either due to the adsorption of oil on the surface or pore blocking.
For cleaning oil-clogged membrane, ionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
can be used as a cleaning agent for solubilizing the oil droplets by dispersion.
However, with SDS, satisfactory permeate flux recovery was not achieved. Moreover, owing to the high critical micelle concentration (CMC), a high dosage of SDS
is required, which promotes foaming and thereby negatively affects the cleaning
process. Thus, a novel metallosurfactant where transition metal ions are incorporated in the surfactant through coordination chemistry is being investigated. Our
work primarily focuses on the development of novel silver-based metallosurfactant by mixing silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ) and SDS as ligand at three different ratios.
Among the three formulated metallosurfactants, the MS3 metallosurfactant showed
the lowest CMC along with superlative surface tension reduction ability. Owing to
the attributes like increased micellization and surface activity at a low concentration of MS3, satisfactorily high flux recovery of around 98% was found. Thus, this
novel synthesized metallosurfactant can be used as a promising membrane-cleaning
surfactant solution.
Keywords Fouling · Membrane cleaning · Metallosurfactant
A. Mazumder · Z. Chowdhury · C. Bhattacharjee (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
e-mail: c.bhatta@gmail.com
A. Mazumder
e-mail: chemical.ankita91@gmail.com
Z. Chowdhury
e-mail: chowdhuryzin@gmail.com
D. Sen (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India
e-mail: dwaipayan.sen@heritageit.edu
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. Ramkrishna et al. (eds.), Advances in Bioprocess Engineering and Technology,
Lecture Notes in Bioengineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7409-2_30
297
Synthesized Silver Metallosurfactant
for Membrane Cleaning
Ankita Mazumder, Zinnia Chowdhury, Dwaipayan Sen,
and Chiranjib Bhattacharjee
Abstract Membrane separation technology used for the treatment of emulsified oily
wastewater generating from different industries faces an intrinsic fouling problem
that occurs either due to the adsorption of oil on the surface or pore blocking.
For cleaning oil-clogged membrane, ionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)
can be used as a cleaning agent for solubilizing the oil droplets by dispersion.
However, with SDS, satisfactory permeate flux recovery was not achieved. Moreover, owing to the high critical micelle concentration (CMC), a high dosage of SDS
is required, which promotes foaming and thereby negatively affects the cleaning
process. Thus, a novel metallosurfactant where transition metal ions are incorporated in the surfactant through coordination chemistry is being investigated. Our
work primarily focuses on the development of novel silver-based metallosurfactant by mixing silver nitrate (AgNO 3 ) and SDS as ligand at three different ratios.
Among the three formulated metallosurfactants, the MS3 metallosurfactant showed
the lowest CMC along with superlative surface tension reduction ability. Owing to
the attributes like increased micellization and surface activity at a low concentration of MS3, satisfactorily high flux recovery of around 98% was found. Thus, this
novel synthesized metallosurfactant can be used as a promising membrane-cleaning
surfactant solution.
Keywords Fouling · Membrane cleaning · Metallosurfactant
A. Mazumder · Z. Chowdhury · C. Bhattacharjee (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
e-mail: c.bhatta@gmail.com
A. Mazumder
e-mail: chemical.ankita91@gmail.com
Z. Chowdhury
e-mail: chowdhuryzin@gmail.com
D. Sen (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India
e-mail: dwaipayan.sen@heritageit.edu
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. Ramkrishna et al. (eds.), Advances in Bioprocess Engineering and Technology,
Lecture Notes in Bioengineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7409-2_30
297