Graphene oxide incorporated thin film nanocomposite membrane at low concentration monomers

Wang Zhao, Huiyuan Liu, Na Meng, Meipeng Jian, Huanting Wang, Xiwang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

124 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A high flux thin film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration (NF) membrane under low pressure (4 bars) was prepared through a facilitated interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction between low concentrations of piperazine (PIP) and organic trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in the presence of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets. The prepared GO-TFN membranes exhibited an improved water flux and chlorine-resistance performance without compromising the salt rejection. At the optimized GO dosage of 0.01 wt%, the synthesized GO-TFN membrane achieved a water permeance of 15.63 L/m2 h bar with the Na2SO4 rejection of 96.56% and MgSO4 rejection of 90.5%. The characterization of the TFN membranes by SEM, AFM, zeta potential and FTIR revealed that GO nanosheets improved the surface roughness, hydrophilicity and surface charges at low PIP and TMC concentrations, leading to both high water flux and salt rejection. The GO-TFN membrane also exhibited enhanced anti-chlorine ability. The study provides new insights into the development of low-pressure NF membranes with superior performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)380-389
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume565
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • Graphene oxide
  • Interfacial polymerization
  • Low pressure
  • Nanofiltration
  • Thin film nanocomposite

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