Yave, WilfredoAniaka, Samuel Chekwube2025-10-222025-07-25http://hdl.handle.net/10362/189609Membrane separation remains one of the most efficient and cost-effective technologies in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and medical industries, enabling the recovery of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), wastewater treatment, and solvent reclamation. In this work, three categories of polyamide (PA) membranes were fabricated via interfacial polymerization of piperazine (PIP) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC): (i) blank thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, (ii) thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes incorporating hydrophilic Zr- based metal-organic framework (MOF-808), and (iii) biomimetic TFN membranes with aquaporin proteins encapsulated in sílica particles. The effects of monomer concentrations, nanofiller loading, curing temperature, and curing time were investigated. Advanced characterization techniques were employed to analyze the TFN membranes and compare them with the TFC membranes. Experimental results showed that the TFN membrane with 0.01 wt.% MOF-808 exhibited enhanced salt rejection in the following order: Na₂SO₄ (93.35%) > MgSO₄ (92.92%) > MgCl₂ (88.26%) > NaCl (40.74%). Incorporation of nanoparticles improved membrane hydrophilicity, as evidenced by a reduction in contact angle from 45.05 ± 0.77° (in the blank TFC) to 37.68 ± 0.71° (TFN-0.02 wt.% MOF-808) and 39.02 ± 2.43° (TFN-0.02 wt.% aquaporin protein). An optimal biomimetic membrane was achieved with a protein concentration of 0.01 wt.%, resulting in a permeate flux of 42.55 L/m²/h at 5 bar, with a Na2SO4 rejection of 82.16%. Dye rejection performance also improved with the incorporation of nanofillers. The TFC membrane achieved rejections of 97.62 ± 0.97% and 97.52 ± 0.38% for Methylene Blue (MB) and Rose Bengal (RB), respectively, while TFN-0.01 wt.% MOF- 808 had 97.42 ± 1.14% for MB, and 98.91 ± 0.69% for RB. The biomimetic TFN membrane exhibited an enhanced rejection, i.e. 98.66 ± 0.06% and 98.12 ± 0.31% for MB and RB respectively.engPolyamideHydrophilic Nanofiltration MembraneThin-Film Nanocomposite (TFN) MembraneBiomimetic MembraneMOF-808Interfacial Polymerizationmaster thesis