Abstract
In order to improve the purification properties of polysulfone (PSF) ultrafiltration membranes (UFM), nano-graphene oxide (nano-GO) was taken as modifier, and the physical blending process was adopted in our experiment. The microstructure, surface morphology and functional groups of modified UFM have been characterized respectively by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and the static contact angle between the membrane surface and the water droplet has also been detected to show the change of its hydrophilicity. Through experiments, it has been found that modified UFM has larger and more developed finger micro-pores, and there exist a large number of -OH groups on its surface, and also its hydrophilicity has been enhanced. The result of the experiments show that the modified UFM may keep rejection above 97% and its water flux can be reached at about 219.1 L/(m2·h) under pressure of 1 bar if 0.4 wt% of nano-GO was added. Additionally, the nano-GO can increase the flux recovery radio (FRR) of the membranes, and the maximum FRR was observed as 74.4% if 0.3 wt% of nano-GO was appended.
Highlights
The membrane separation technology has been widely adopted in concentration [1] and purification [2], seawater desalination [3], wastewater treatment [4] and other fields due to its compact equipment and easy automation
In order to improve the purification properties of polysulfone (PSF) ultrafiltration membranes (UFM), nano-graphene oxide was taken as modifier, and the physical blending process was adopted in our experiment
Peaks at 1585 cm−1, 1504 cm−1 and 1489 cm−1 are due to stretching vibration of benzene ring skeleton, and the peak at 1716 cm−1 is assigned to the stretching vibrations of C=O in the carbonyl group
Summary
The membrane separation technology has been widely adopted in concentration [1] and purification [2], seawater desalination [3], wastewater treatment [4] and other fields due to its compact equipment and easy automation. Polysulfone (PSF) has been widely used in producing separation membranes due to its high temperature, anti-oxidation and acid resistance [5], but it has strong hydrophobicity. In order to overcome these draw-backs, some improving measures have been experimental studied these years, such as nano-metallic oxides (TiO2 [6], SiO2 [7], Al2O3 [8], ZnO [9], ZrO2 [10], Fe3O4 [11]) and low dimensional carbon nano-material (graphite oxide and carbon nanotubes [12]) have been found to be most helpful to improve membrane performances if blending with polymers, where graphene oxide (GO) has been gotten more attention because of its high surface area, strong hydrophilicity [13], antibacterial ability [14] and the characteristic of negative charge in whole pH range [15]
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