Production and characterization of graphene oxide/polymer support composite membranes for water desalination and purification

Abstract

Filtration membranes play a critical role in ensuring access to clean drinking water by effectively removing contaminants and sea water desalination. Novel materials are being explored to meet the filtration membranes requirements of reduced energy consumption, high permeability, high selectivity, and affordability. Graphene nanomaterials have emerged as a highly promising option due to their exceptional properties. Due to their extraordinarily high surface area, chemical stability, mechanical durability, atomic thickness, and reactivity towards diverse water pollutants, graphene nanomaterials offer outstanding efficiency as membranes for water desalination and purification. In this study, we propose the fabrication of membranes using graphene oxide (GO) supported by commercially available porous polymeric membranes such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Composite membranes are formed by depositing graphene oxide dispersions with different concentrations onto the support membranes through vacuum-assisted filtration. The structure and morphology of the resulting graphene oxide membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM-FEG), Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV‐VIS spectroscopy. To assess their performance, the GO membranes were subjected to filtration tests using salted water and conductivity measurement of permeate. These measurements allow the evaluation of their efficiency in removing salts. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the fabricated membranes for water desalination.