Evaluation of Properties and Performance of Polymeric Membrane Modified with Graphene Oxide

N owadays, with population growth, the demand for fresh water is rising rapidly.Development of membrane based systems such as reverse osmosis, nanofilteration,ultrafilteration, and microfilteration is important strategy to reduce water scarcity.Improving performance, life time and other properties of membranes are always importantissues to reduce cost and energy consumption of membrane based-water treatment systemand should be considered to develop membrane technologies. Recently, graphene oxidehas attracted great attention to modify relevant membranes and manufacture novelnanocomposite membranes. Graphene oxide has unique structure and properties and can beproduce at commercial scale with low cost. Functional groups of graphene oxide includinghydroxyl, epoxy and carboxyl lead to strong interaction with polymeric matrix. Usinggraphene oxide in surface and matrix of polymer can improve mechanical strength, thermalstability, hydrophilicity and antifouling of polymeric membrane and subsequently improvemembrane flux and performance in desalination process. In this review, the processes formodifying of membrane surface and synthesizing of nanocomposite membrane usinggraphene oxide have been evaluated. The mechanism of graphene oxide influence onmembrane porosity, structure, characteristics and performance has been also discussed.