Preparation and characterization of graphene oxide/TiO2 blended PES nanofiltration membrane with improved antifouling and separation performance

Mahdie Safarpour, Vahid Vatanpour*, Alireza Khataee

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

367 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Polyethersulfone (PES)-based mixed matrix nanofiltration membrane was developed by blending with partially reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/TiO2nanocomposite. The effect of rGO/TiO2contents on the morphology and performance of the prepared membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and water contact angle analysis. The blended membranes displayed improved water permeability and fouling resistance compared to the bare PES. When the content of rGO/TiO2was 0.15 wt.%, the water flux reached a maximum value (45.0 kg/m2h) nearly twice of that of the bare PES membrane (23.1 kg/m2h). Fouling resistance of the membranes studied by bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution filtration showed that 0.1 wt.% rGO/TiO2membrane had the best antifouling property. Nanofiltration performance of the prepared membranes was evaluated by rejection of three organic dyes with different molecular weights (i.e. C. I. Reactive Green 19, C. I. Direct Yellow 12 and C. I. Reactive Blue 21). The rGO/TiO2/PES membranes showed better dye removal performance than the bare PES. Compared with TiO2/PES and GO/PES membranes, rGO/TiO2/PES membranes presented the best water permeation rate, antifouling ability and dye rejection.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)65-78
Number of pages14
JournalDesalination
Volume393
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Antifouling
  • Blended membrane
  • Dye separation
  • Graphene oxide
  • Nanofiltration

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