Author/Authors :
Rezaee، Reza نويسنده Kurdistan Environmental Health Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran , , Nasseri، Simin نويسنده 1Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health and Institute for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , , Mahvi، Amir Hossein نويسنده Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health; National Institute of Health Research; Center for Solid Waste Research, Institute fo , , Nabizadeh، Ramin نويسنده Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , , Mousavi، Abbas نويسنده Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran , , Rashidi، Alimorad نويسنده , , Jafari ، Ali نويسنده , , Nazmara، Shahrokh نويسنده 1Center for Environmental Research and Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ,
Abstract :
Background: Nowadays, study and application of modified membranes for water treatment have been considered
significantly. The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize a polysulfone (PSF)/graphene oxide (GO)
nanocomposite membrane and to evaluate for arsenate rejection from water.
Materials and methods: The nanocomposite PSF/GO membrane was fabricated using wet phase inversion
method. The effect of GO on the synthesized membrane morphology and hydrophilicity was studied by using
FE-SEM, AFM, contact angle, zeta potential, porosity and pore size tests. The membrane performance was also
evaluated in terms of pure water flux and arsenate rejection.
Results: ATR-FTIR confirmed the presence of hydrophilic functional groups on the surface of the prepared GO.
FE-SEM micrographs showed that with increasing GO content in the casting solution, the sub-layer structure was
enhanced and the drop like voids in the pure PSF membrane changed to macrovoids in PSF/GO membrane along
with increase in porosity. AFM images indicated lower roughness of modified membrane compared to pure PSF
membrane. Furthermore, contact angle measurement and permeation experiment showed that by increasing GO
up to 1 wt%, membrane hydrophilicity and pure water flux were increased. For PSF/GO-1, pure water flux was
calculated about 50 L/m2h at 4 bar. The maximum rejection was obtained by PSF/GO-2 about 83.65 % at 4 bar.
Moreover, it was revealed that arsenate rejection depended on solution pH values. It was showed that with
increasing pH, the rejection increased.
Conclusions: This study showed that application of GO as an additive to PSF casting solution could enhance the
membrane hydrophilicity, porosity, flux and arsenate rejection.
