Abstract
Improving the productivity without any compromise in selectivity is major challenge in membrane-based separation. Dense reverse osmosis membranes are being used for desalination; however, the first attempt has been made to amalgamate graphene oxide with polysulfone to develop loose composite membranes. With a polymer phase concentration of 21 wt% in dope solution, the membranes are fabricated by phase inversion technique with varying concentration of graphene oxide. The membranes are characterized by various structural and morphological analytical techniques, and the cross-sectional images reveals the porous nature and formation of macrovoids in the substructure of the membrane. This confirms that the incorporation of graphene oxide increases the membrane’s porosity from 2.12% for plain polysulfone membranes to 37.1% for the composite membrane with 3.5 wt% graphene oxide additive. The pure water flux, rejection of divalent and monovalent salt solutions and antifouling studies of the composite membranes were evaluated, and it was noted that the membrane with 2.5 wt% graphene oxide nanosheets demonstrated optimum productivity and selectivity. This membrane provided a flux of 68.96 L/m2h at 5 bar operating pressure and rejection of 71.6% for MgSO4, 56.3% for MgCl2, 39.2% for Na2SO4 and 12.4% for NaCl salts and demonstrated better antifouling properties using bovine serum albumin as a foulant and exhibits 79.5% flux recovery ratio.
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Abbreviations
- AFM:
-
Atomic force microscopy
- ATR:
-
Attenuated total reflectance
- BSA:
-
Bovine serum albumin
- CNT:
-
Carbon nanotube
- DI:
-
Deionized
- DIPS:
-
Diffusion-induced phase separation
- FESEM:
-
Field emission scanning electron microscopy
- FRR:
-
Flux recovery ratio
- FTIR:
-
Fourier transform infra-red
- GO:
-
Graphene oxide
- IEC:
-
Ion exchange capacity
- MMM:
-
Mixed matrix membrane
- NMP:
-
N-Methyl pyrrolidone
- PES:
-
Polyethersulfone
- PSf:
-
Polysulfone
- PVDF:
-
Polyvinylidene fluoride
- PWF:
-
Pure water flux
- RO:
-
Reverse osmosis
- TGA:
-
Thermogravimetric analysis
- TFC:
-
Thin film composite
- UF:
-
Ultrafiltration
- XRD:
-
X-ray diffraction
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Acknowledgements
The author Kavitha J would like to acknowledge the Department of Science and Technology for the financial assistance provided under the WOS – A scheme, SR/WOS-A/ET-169/2016.
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KJ was involved in the conceptualization, methodology, data curation, funding acquisition, writing—original draft preparation. RM contributed to the resources, formal analysis, visualization and investigation. ARP helped in the formal analysis, visualization and investigation. PS was involved in the visualization and investigation. MP contributed to the supervision, project administration, resources, validation, writing—reviewing and editing.
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Appendix A. Supplementary data
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Composition of fabricated membranes, FTIR and TGA of GO nanosheets, Contact angle studies of membranes, Water uptake studies of membranes, FESEM surface images of GO/PSf membranes, XRD results of GO/PSf mixed matrix membranes, Repetitive cycle antifouling studies of M2.
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Kavitha, J., Rajalakshmi, M., Phani, A.R. et al. A transport channel-regulated graphene oxide-based composite membranes for salt rejection. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 10031–10048 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04562-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-022-04562-5