Tailor-made thin film nanocomposite membrane incorporated with graphene oxide using novel interfacial polymerization technique for enhanced water separation

Abstract

Abstract In this work, tailor-made graphene oxide (GO) incorporated thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes based on novel interfacial polymerization (IP) technique were presented. The embedment of GO nanosheets within ultrathin cross-linked polyamide (PA) layer was successfully achieved without forming particle agglomeration that could affect structural integrity. A total of five composite membranes with different GO loadings (0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.04 g/m2) were fabricated and these membranes were characterized using TEM, FESEM, XPS, ATR-FTIR and contact angle goniometer to evaluate the impact of GO loading on the physicochemical properties of PA selective layer. It is found that with the presence of GO, the TFN membranes exhibited higher surface hydrophilicity due to increment in hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in PA layer, hence, improved the attraction between water molecules and membrane surface. Upon incorporation of 0.02 g/m2 of GO, the resultant TFN membrane achieved 95.8% and 97.7% removal rate for Na2SO4 and MgSO4, respectively along with 31.4% higher water flux than the membrane contained no GO. More importantly, this work demonstrated the broad applicability of novel IP technique in synthesizing TFN membranes with improved antifouling properties independent of the PA chemistry.