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Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Preparation of Liquid-exfoliated Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanosheets with Controlled Size and Thickness: A State of the Art Protocol
Published on: December 20, 2016
Cellulose acetate composite membranes tailored with exfoliated tungsten disulfide nanosheets: Permeation
S Vetrivel1, M Sri Abirami Saraswathi1, D Rana2
1Polymeric Materials Research Lab, PG & Research Department of Chemistry, Alagappa Government Arts College, Karaikudi 630 003, India.
Abstract:
An attempt has been made to demonstrate the effects of exfoliated tungsten disulfide (E-WS2) nanosheets on the fabrication, permeation and anti-fouling performance of cellulose acetate (CA) ultrafiltration membranes. The E-WS2 was prepared and characterized in terms of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD). Pure and composite CA membranes were methodically characterized for its surface, chemical and morphological structure using FT-IR, XRD, SEM and water contact angle analysis. Filtration characteristics of membranes such as pure water flux, porosity and hydraulic resistance were also studied. The addition of E-WS2 nanosheets exhibited significant improvement in the surface hydrophilicity of composite membranes than the control CA membrane and are evidenced by the observed contact angle and porosity values. However at 1 wt% E-WS2 concentration, CA membrane showed lower water flux (92.3 ± 0.5) due to the pore plugging effect. The flux recovery ratio (FRR), bovine serum albumin (BSA) rejection, reversible and irreversible fouling experimental results suggested that CA/E-WS2 (1 wt%) UF membranes possess better fouling resistance potential than control CA membrane as a result of enhanced hydrophilicity. This study emphasizes the strong interplay between CA and E-WS2 nanosheets which play a significant role in altering the permeation and antifouling characteristics of nanocomposite membranes.
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