Investigation of Effect of Incorporating Nano Graphene Oxide on Efficiency of Polyether Sulfone Membrane for Wastewater Treatment

The main purpose of project is adding graphene oxide nanoplates (0.1 up to 0.75 wt. %) to the polyether sulfone membrane in order to increase the hydrophilicity of membrane that increases the permeation flux and reduces fouling properties. To investigate of efficiency of membranes, distilled water and oil in water emulsions were used as feed of process. It was observed that when nanoplates of GO with the amount of  0.5 wt.% added to the polymer solution, the permeation flux enhanced from 96 up to 139 Kg/m2 h  and 96.12 percentage of rejection (COD) was achieved. The difference of first and last fluxes decreased which show the reduction in the membrane fouling. But with adding more than 0.5 wt. % of GO, properties and efficiency of membranes because of higher viscosity decreased. Therefore, membrane embedded 0.5 wt. % GO indicates not only higher and effective performance but also reduced fouling properties.