Due to worldwide shortage of water sources and, on the other hand, producing a huge amount of contaminated industrial wastewater, there is an urgent need to provide proper treatment processes such as fast-growing membrane ones. In this study, some nanocomposite nanofilter membranes, as a promising solution for this goal, were fabricated by incorporation of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets into polyethersulfone (PES) membrane matrix and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) via the method of non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) to dedicate them higher separation performance and a higher antifouling tendency. The produced GO nanosheets and the prepared membranes' structure were evaluated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. Then, the separation performance and antifouling characteristics of the prepared pristine and nanocomposite membranes were evaluated at 3 bar, 27°C, and Congo red (CR) dye concentrations of 50, 100, and 200 ppm. The observations revealed that the incorporation of GO nanosheets into the polymer matrix of PES-PVP increases the permeation flux, rejection of CR, and flux recovery ratio (FRR) to the maximum values of 276.4 L/m2 .h, 99.5%, and 92.4%, respectively, at 0.4 wt.% loading of GO nanosheets as an optimum filler loading. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Graphene oxide nanosheets were prepared and uniformly incorporated in the polyethersulfone porous membrane. The nanocomposite membranes revealed higher separation performance, that is, permeation flux and dye rejection as 282.5 L/m2 .h and 99.5% at 0.4 wt.% loading of GO nanosheets. Flux recovery ratio of the nanocomposite membrane, as their antifouling character, also increased as 92.4%, as the GO nanosheets were incorporated by 0.4 wt.%.
Keywords: GO nanosheets; dye removal; improvement; nanocomposite; nanofiltration; separation performance.
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