Graphene oxide incorporated polysulfone substrate for flat sheet thin film nanocomposite pressure retarded osmosis membrane

Abstract

This study focuses on the development of flat sheet thin film nanocomposite (TFN) pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) membranes for the enhancement of osmotic power generation by the incorporation of laboratory-synthesised graphene oxide (GO) into the polysulfone (PSf) polymer matrix. A series of membranes containing different weight percent of GO (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 wt%) were fabricated via a phase inversion method with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the pore forming agent. The results show that the TFN-0.25GO membrane has excellent water flux, salt reverse flux, high porosity and an enhanced microvoids morphology compared to the control membrane. The highest power density was achieved when TFN-0.25GO was used is 8.36 Wm−2 at pressure >15 bar. It was found that the incorporation of GO into the polymer matrix has significantly improved the intrinsic and mechanical properties of the membrane.