Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.
2 Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB, Formerly AWMC), Gehrmann Building, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4072, Brisbane, Australia
3 Environmental Pollution and Engineering Group, Environmental Research Center (ERC), Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.
Abstract
In this study, reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-based polyethersulfone (PES) mixed-matrix nanofiltration (NF) membranes were fabricated for dye removal and desalination applications. The effects of rGO loading (0–1 wt.%) on membrane structure and performance were investigated. Incorporation of rGO increased membrane porosity and mean pore radius while enhancing surface hydrophilicity. The pure water flux (PWF) increased from 13.66 kg/m² h for the bare PES membrane (M0) to 26.58 kg/m² h for the membrane containing 0.5 wt.% rGO (M2). The incorporation of rGO also improved antifouling performance, with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) increasing from 65.94 % for M0 to 88.39 % for M2, while irreversible fouling (Rir) decreased from 34.05 % to 11.60 %. Among the fabricated membranes, M2 exhibited the best overall separation performance, achieving removal values of 91.6 % for methyl orange (MO) and 91.3 % for methylene blue (MB). Salt rejection was also improved, with M2 achieving 83.2 % rejection of Na2SO4 compared with 81.3 % for M0, and 81.7 % rejection of CaCl2 compared with 79.8 % for M0. Overall, the membrane containing 0.5 wt. % rGO provided the most favorable balance among permeability, antifouling properties, and separation efficiency, indicating that moderate rGO incorporation is an effective approach for developing high-performance PES nanofiltration membranes for water purification.
Keywords
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