Antifouling properties of hollow fibre alumina membrane incorporated with graphene oxide frameworks

Abstract

Membrane fouling takes place due to foulant adsorption on the membrane surface, which leads to the reduction of membrane performance and its durability in application. Hollow fibre alumina membrane incorporated with graphene oxide frameworks (GOFs) could avoid this phenomenon by forming GOFs/alumina composite membranes. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) structure shows that these composite membranes successfully developed GO and GOFs films with a thickness in the range of ∼234 to ∼635 nm. Meanwhile, the atomic force microscope (AFM) images show that their average roughness (Ra) becomes smoother, in the range of 30 to 46 nm, which would enhance antifouling properties. GOF(BDA)/alumina had highest proteins separation for all proteins, which are 98.40, 98.32, 95.82 and 95.65 % for bovine serum albumin (BSA), egg albumin (EA), trypsin (TR) and lysozyme (LSZ), respectively. Furthermore, this composite membrane had high flux recovery rate (FRR) of 94.86% and 95.21% at low total fouling ratio (Rt) of 21.70% and 30.22% for long-term filtration of LSZ protein and humic acid (HA) solute, respectively. Thus, this composite membrane showed better antifouling properties in proteins separation and HA removal application due to formation GOFs film.