Enhancement of polysulfone ultrafiltration membrane with third generation poly(amido amine)-graphene oxide nanocomposite

Abstract

In this era of rapid industrialization and urbanization, ultrafiltration is identified as a potential technology for wastewater reclamation to reduce the stress on renewable water resources. In this work, graphene oxide (GO) has been functionalized with poly (amido amine) (PAMAM) to produce GO-PAMAM nanocomposite that was embedded in polysulfone membrane matrix produced by phase inversion. The abundance of -OH and -NH2 groups on the synthesized nanocomposites resulted in improved hydrophilicity of the membrane and aided improving the membrane porosity and increased its pore radius. As a result, the membrane pure water permeation flux increased by 1300 % for the new membrane compared to pristine PSF membrane to reach a maximum of 124.5 LMH/bar while maintaining a high BSA rejection rate of 99 % with a flux recovery rate of 55 %. Although the flux recovery rate was low, the improvement achieved in pure water permeation flux while maintaining high BSA rejection makes the produced membrane suitable for future ultrafiltration applications.