Characteristics of Cellulose Acetate/Polyethylene Glycol membrane with the addition of Graphene Oxide by using surface coating method

Abstract

Fabrication of membrane for desalination process with high performance is the objective of this study. The addition of Graphene Oxide (GO) in cellulose acetate/polyethylene glycol (CA/PEG) with a ratio of 80:20 was prepared by a surface coating method. In this study, the composition of GO was compared, with composition ranging from 0.0025 to 0.0125 wt% to the mass of the solvent. The characteristics of membranes were observed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier-Transformed Infra-Red (FTIR), contact angle analysis and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). While its performance was observed by analyzing salt rejection, flux permeate and permeability of the membranes. SEM analysis shows that membrane exhibits asymmetric membrane with sponge-like structure. FTIR results show that the peak area of –OH bonding decreases with the addition of GO. This result is in agreement with the contact angle analysis. The experiment results shows that membrane with the best performance is CA/PEG membrane with the addition of 0.01 wt% GO with salt rejection (%R) of 37%, flux permeate (F) of 1356 L/m2.h, and permeability (P) of 0.0013 L/m2.h.kPa.