Author/Authors :
mahmoudi, e. universiti kebangsaan malaysia - faculty of engineering and built environment - department of chemical engineering and process, Bangi, Malaysia , teow, y. h. universiti kebangsaan malaysia - faculty of engineering and built environment, research centre for sustainable process technology (cespro) - department of chemical engineering and process, Bangi, Malaysia , mohammad, a. w. universiti kebangsaan malaysia - faculty of engineering and built environment - department of chemical engineering and process, Bangi, Malaysia , ba-abbad, m. m. qatar university - gas processing centre, Doha, Qatar , ng, l. y. universiti tunku abdul rahman - lee kong chian faculty of engineering and science - department of chemical engineering, Cheras, Malaysia , benamor, a. qatar university - gas processing centre, Doha, Qatar
Abstract :
The fast development of nanotechnology has led to significant improvement in membrane technology for the development of mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs). Graphene oxide (GO) is a new revolutionary addition to the nanomaterial family. The objective of this work is to study the effect of GO loading for the enhancement of nylon 6,6-GO MMMs performance. GO was synthesized from graphite powder and incorporated in membrane matrix through wet phase inversion method. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, water contact angle, porosity, tensile strength analysis were applied for the characterization of the synthesized nylon-GO MMMs. Whereas, the performance of nylon-GO MMMs was assessed based on its pure water flux and sodium chloride rejection. The incorporation of GO nanoplates into membrane matrix had increased the membrane porosity, surface wettability, and mechanical strength of the synthesized nylon-GO MMMs where the optimum membrane characteristics were obtained by M4 with 3 wt.% of GO nanoplates. Assessment of membrane performance was also supported that M4 has the greatest performance where sodium chloride rejection was increased from 18% for M1 to 53% for M4. The results proved that GO nanoplates are excellent nano-filler material for the synthesis of MMMs. M4 with extraordinary performance has good potential for the application in water and wastewater treatment.
Keywords :
Mixed , matrix membrane, graphene oxide, nylon 6,6 , hydrophilic, sodium chloride rejection
