Development of novel SiO2–GO nanohybrid/polysulfone membrane with enhanced performance

Polysulfone (PSf)-based hybrid membranes are developed by doping with SiO2–GO nanohybrid. The hybrid membranes exhibit improved water permeability with the rejection to egg albumin maintained at a high level (>98%). Especially, when the content of SiO2–GO in the membrane is 0.3 wt%, the water flux reaches a maximum that is nearly twice of that of PSf membrane. Compared with SiO2/PSf and GO/PSf hybrid membranes, SiO2–GO/PSf hybrid membrane presents the best overall properties, including water permeation rate, protein rejection, and antifouling ability. It can be attributed to the unique property of SiO2–GO nanohybrid, i.e., the high hydrophilicity and good dispersibility derived from silica nanoparticles which are densely and uniformly coated on the GO surface and perform as a space layer of GO.