One-step synthesis of zwitterionic graphene oxide nanohybrid: Application to polysulfone tight ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane

G P Syed Ibrahim; Arun M Isloor; A F Ismail; Ramin Farnood

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-63356-2

One-step synthesis of zwitterionic graphene oxide nanohybrid: Application to polysulfone tight ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane

Sci Rep. 2020 Apr 23;10(1):6880. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-63356-2.

Authors

G P Syed Ibrahim¹, Arun M Isloor^{2

3}, A F Ismail⁴, Ramin Farnood⁵

Affiliations

¹ Membrane and Separation Technology Laboratory, Chemistry Department, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore, 575 025, India.
² Membrane and Separation Technology Laboratory, Chemistry Department, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore, 575 025, India. isloor@yahoo.com.
³ Apahatech Solutions LLP, Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore, 575 025, India. isloor@yahoo.com.
⁴ Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3ES, Canada.

Abstract

In this paper, novel zwitterionic graphene oxide (GO) nanohybrid was synthesized using monomers [2-(Methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide (SBMA) and N,N'-methylenebis(acrylamide) (MBAAm) (GO@poly(SBMA-co-MBAAm), and incorporated into polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber membrane for the effectual rejection of dye from the wastewater. The synthesized nanohybrid was characterized using FT-IR, PXRD, TGA, EDX, TEM and zeta potential analysis. The occurrence of nanohybrid on the membrane matrix and the elemental composition were analyzed by XPS. The as-prepared tight ultrafiltration hollow fiber membrane exhibited high rejection of reactive black 5 (RB-5, 99%) and reactive orange 16 (RO-16, 74%) at a dye concentration of 10 ppm and pure water flux (PWF) of 49.6 L/m²h. Fabricated nanocomposite membranes were also studied for their efficacy in the removal of both monovalent (NaCl) and divalent salts (Na₂SO₄). The results revealed that the membrane possesses complete permeation to NaCl with less rejection of Na₂SO₄ (<5%). In addition, the nanocomposite membrane revealed outstanding antifouling performance with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 73% towards bovine serum albumin (BSA). Therefore, the in-house prepared novel nanocomposite membrane is a good candidate for the effective decolorization of wastewater containing dye.