**Development, Characterization, and Applications of Capsaicin Composite Nanofiltration Membranes Development, Characterization, and Applications of Capsaicin Composite Nanofiltration Membranes**

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Griselda Evelia Romero-López, Sergio Pérez-Sicairos, Jesús Álvarez-Sánchez, Griselda Evelia Romero-López,

German Eduardo Devora-Isiordia, Sergio Pérez-Sicairos, German Eduardo Devora-Isiordia, Reyna Guadalupe Sánchez-Duarte

Reyna Guadalupe Sánchez-Duarte and and Gustavo Adolfo Fimbres-Weihs

Gustavo Adolfo Fimbres-Weihs

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76846

#### **Abstract**

Biofouling in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is a severe problem, causing a decrease in both permeate flux and salt rejection and increasing transmembrane pressure. Capsaicin extract inhibits bacterial growth and is therefore used in this study to prepare a thin-film composite membrane and membrane support. Four types of nanofiltration (NF) membranes were prepared by interfacial polymerization onto a porous support prepared by the phase inversion method. Membrane A was the control membrane with no capsaicin extract, membrane B contains capsaicin in the polyamide thin film, membrane C contains capsaicin in the porous support, and membrane D contains capsaicin in both the thin film and support layers. Three different salts (Na<sup>2</sup> SO4 , MgSO4, and NaCl) were used at different concentrations (1000, 3000, and 5000 ppm) to test the performance of the membranes in terms of salt rejection and permeate flux. Membrane B showed the highest rejection for all the salts and concentrations tested. For 5000 ppm NaCl, the permeate flux for membrane B was 14.81% higher, and salt rejection was 19.6% higher than membrane A. Future work will evaluate the anti-biofouling properties of the membranes prepared with capsaicin, when exposed to seawater microorganisms.

**Keywords:** nanofiltration membrane, capsaicin, characterization, atomic force microscopy, contact angle, reverse osmosis

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
