Cellulose Acetate Porous Membranes for Desalination and Water Treatment: Optimization of the Fabrication Conditions

Access to clean water continues to be the most urgent and pressing global issue The increasing scarcity of freshwater sources and the global demand for water is expected to grow in the oncoming decades which urge the need to develop alternative water supplies, including seawater desalination, reuse and recycling of wastewater. H2020 MSCA IF project "Enhanced MUMs" targets the development of advanced multifunctional and low cost polymeric membranes for water treatment and desalination The project is a multidisciplinary one and its main innovation resides in the combination of (1) enhanced structural properties high porosity and reinforcement, for improved water treatment and desalination characteristics and (2) light induced antifouling and antimicrobial activity based on the loading of photosensitizers in the polymeric membrane. The current work represents optimization of the preparation conditions of cellulose acetate membranes by phase inversion technique using automatic film applicator and water as a coagulation medium.