Mercury is known as harmful element and significant negative effect on human and living creatures. The current study investigates the effective removal of toxic mercury from aqueous solution by reverse osmosis with low pressure. The various operating conditions as concentration, time and pressure used for the rejection study. The rejection study carried out in both terms as adsorption and pore size for long term (48 h) and achieved 99% mercury rejection. Further, the fouling propensity of membranes was studied and the fouling layer formed on the surface of the membranes was analyzed by the AFM imaging and the flux recovery ratio of the membranes was also calculated. The compatibility, thermal stability, hydrophilicity, surface energy, and morphology of the membranes were systematically investigated.

• Ayyavoo Jayalakshmi(School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology)
• Young-Nam Kwon(School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology)
• In-Chul Kim(Environment & Resources Research Center, Korea Research Institute Chemical Technology)