The current study focused on the preparation of adsorptive nanocomposite membrane for Cu(II) removal from aqueous solution. TiO2 nanoparticles as adsorbent and Polyaniline (PANi) as a modifier to improve dispersion quality and adsorption capacity of TiO2, were added to the polyethersulfone (PES) casting solution. Adsorptive membranes were prepared at different dosage of PANi-TiO2 nanocomposite (3, 5 and 7 wt.%). The as-prepared membranes were characterized with respect to chemical structure, surface properties, and morphology, using Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle measurement and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effect of PANi-TiO2 content and type of solvent on the structure and performance of resultant membranes were also investigated. It is found that the optimum performance parameters (rejection of 94% and permeance of 59.5 kg/(m2.h.bar)) were obtained for membrane containing 5 wt.% of PANi-TiO2 nanocomposite. Additionally, the optimum sample was used to study the adsorption mechanism via Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms and pseudo-second order kinetic model. The effect of pH on adsorption capacity was also reported. Finally, membrane reusability was studied via subsequent adsorption-regeneration cycles. The obtained results indicated that Cu(II) removal efficiency of optimal adsorptive membrane reduced from 94% to 86% after 4 cycles.

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