Fabrication and characterization of graphene oxide–polyethersulfone (GO–PES) composite flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes for oil–water separation

Abstract

BACKGROUND In this work, a series of graphene oxide–polyethersulfone (GO–PES) composite flat sheet (FS) and hollow fiber (HF) membranes were fabricated by blending 0.5 and 1.0 wt% of GO into the PES matrix and utilized for oil–water separation. GO was first prepared and characterized by using Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) before being used as membrane fillers. RESULTS Interestingly, although similar dope composition was used for the fabrication of HF and FS membranes, their morphology and pore size varied significantly owing to the way the membranes were fabricated. Significant enhancement of hydrophilicity was observed for both composite FS and HF membranes, where the water contact angle value decreased from 74.8° to 42.2° and 71.4° to 49.8°, respectively. The flux of the composite membranes increased up to 150% of the bare membranes especially when 1.0 wt% of GO was added. Although higher oil rejection (~99%) was observed for HF membranes that possess smaller pores, the permeation flux was maintained due to the improved flow dynamic. Lower oil rejection (up to 50%) was observed for FS membranes, which might be due to its big pore sizes particularly at the bottom surface. As more oil droplets formed on the membrane surface and prevented water molecules to pass through the membrane, fouling might occur rapidly. CONCLUSIONS The results obtained in this work suggest that surface hydrophilicity, pore size of membranes and oil–water separation performances was greatly affected by membrane shape. Owing to many advantages of HF membranes, this type of membrane has great potential for commercial applications. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Development of Environment-Friendly Membrane for Oily Industrial Wastewater Filtration

“…Consequently, improvement in permeation flux and oil rejection efficiency are expected. Creation of folds on the membrane surfaces filled with GO were also reported in other works [ 2 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Some macropores could also be observed on the surfaces of membranes with 0.5 and 1.0 pphr GO loadings.…”

“…The results obtained from this study using the NBR-GO flat sheet membranes are comparable or even better than previous reported research works. One wt% GO filled polyether sulfone flat sheet membrane produced by Junaidi et al, shows rejection rate of oil around 50% and water flux of 95.12 ± 8.51 Lm −2 h −1 at pressure 1 bar [ 40 ]. Meanwhile in another study by Amid et al, 0.25 wt% GO filled polycarbonate flat sheet membrane shows 99% rejection rate of oil with water flux of 85.85 Lm −2 h −1 at operating pressure of 2 bar [ 52 ].…”

Bisphenol A Adsorption from Aqueous Solution using Graphene Oxide-Alginate Beads

“…It can be synthesized through oxidation and exfoliation of cheap graphite, forming a monomolecular graphite layer with numerous oxygen-containing functionalities such as hydroxyl, carbonyl, carboxyl, and epoxide groups. As a result, GO exhibits many unusual and fascinating physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties (Junaidi et al 2020). Due to many oxygen functionalities on GO planes, it can be easily dispersed in various solvents for further modification or react with many chemical groups to enhance the properties of GO and create new functionalities (Nie et al 2015).…”

Rapid Surface Modification of Ultrafiltration Membranes for Enhanced Antifouling Properties

“…Two main strategies to improve the membrane antifouling properties are (1) bulk membrane modification via incorporation of hydrophilic nanomaterials [11][12][13][14] or hydrophilic polymers [15][16][17] and (2) top surface modification using methods such as dip-coating [18,19] and layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly [19][20][21]. Nevertheless, these surface modification approaches are always associated with significant drawbacks.…”