Influence of GO-Ag nano-filler on the antibacterial, antifouling and hydrophilic characteristics of polyvinyl chloride membrane

Abstract

The integral hydrophobic characteristic of polymers hinders their implementations towards water treatment. In the present work, highly hydrophilic and antifouling polyvinyl chloride membranes were fabricated based on graphene oxide-silver (GO-Ag) nanolayers. The distinctive infiltration approach of polyvinyl chloride resin through the stacked GO-Ag layers results in surface availability of highly hydrophilic graphene oxide nanosheets. Incorporation of different weight percent of GO-Ag to the polyvinyl chloride resin increases the permeability, rejection and antifouling properties of polyvinyl chloride membranes. Water contact angle of pure polyvinyl chloride was found to decrease from 92.5° to 61.4° for GO-Ag based membrane. Water flux and bovine serum albumin rejection of pure polyvinyl chloride membrane were improved from 192 Lm−2 h−1 to 613 Lm−2 h−1 and 81.5% to 92.1% respectively. Besides this, graphene oxide silver based membrane depicts least irreversible fouling 14.3% and highest flux recovery ratio 85.6%. Maintenance of high flux recovery ratio of P/GO-Ag 0.5 wt% membrane after three consecutive cycles of water and bovine serum albumin filtration justify the high durability of membrane. The synthesized GO-Ag nanoadditive showed appreciable antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli. Thermo gravimetric analysis and Differential scanning calorimetry analysis of GO-Ag based membranes proves their high thermal stability as well.