Cationic dyes adsorption study on graphene- Polyvinylidene fluoride ‎nanocomposite membranes

Abstract

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is one of the well-known polymers in different types of ‎membranes for water treatment applications, because of its unique chemical, mechanical and ‎thermal properties. Because of the presence of fluorine groups in polymer chain, the PVDF has ‎a negative electrostatic surface charge that makes the PVDF a suitable adsorbing material for ‎cationic dyes such as Rhodamine B (RB) and Methylene Blue (MB). The presence of two-‎dimensional graphene oxide sheets with negative electrostatic surface charge in the PVDF ‎matrix, can improve the adsorption of the dyes on PVDF/graphene oxide (PGO) composite ‎membranes due to increasing of negative electrostatic charge. In this study, we aimed to ‎explore synthesis and characterization of the PGO composite membranes by Scanning Electron ‎Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction ‎‎(XRD), to confirm the effective presence of the GO sheets in PVDF matrix. In continue, the ‎mechanisms of physical adsorption of the dyes on PGO membranes have been investigated‎‎.‎