Improved separation and antifouling properties of thin-film composite nanofiltration membrane by the incorporation of cGO

Abstract

Poly(piperazine amide) composite nanofiltration (NF) membranes were modified through the incorporation of carboxylated graphene oxide (cGO) in the polyamide layer during the interfacial polymerization (IP) process on the polysulfone (PSF)/nonwoven fabric (NWF) ultrafiltration (UF) substrate membrane surface. The composition and morphology of the prepared NF membrane surface were determined by means of ATR-FTIR, SEM-EDX and AFM. The effects of cGO contents on membrane hydrophilicity, separation performance and antifouling properties were investigated through Water Contact Angle (WCA) analysis, the permeance and three-cycle fouling measurements. The growth model of cGO-incorporated polyamide thin-film was proposed. Compared to the original NF membranes, the surface hydrophilicity, water permeability, salt rejection and antifouling properties of the cGO-incorporated NF membrane had all improved. When cGO content was 100ppm, the MgSO4 rejection of composite NF membrane reached a maximum value of 99.2% meanwhile membrane obtained an obvious enhanced water flux (81.6Lm−2h−1, at 0.7MPa) which was nearly three times compared to the virginal NF membrane. The cGO-incorporated NF membrane showed an excellent selectivity of MgSO4 and NaCl with the rejection ratio of MgSO4/NaCl of approximately 8.0.