Synthesis and Evaluation of Polyamide/Polyethersulfone/Nano-GrapheneOxide Thin Film Composite Membranes

Various Polyamide(PA)/Polyethersulfone(PES) thin film composite (TFC) membranes aresynthesized via interfacial polymerization between PES-absorbed M-Phenylenediamine(MPD) and۱,۳,۵- Benzenetricarbonzl trichloride (TMC) and the effect of Graphene Oxide (GO) nano-plates ashydrophilic additive in PES sublayer of them is studied with regard to salt rejection and water flux.It is found that increasing applied pressure causes desalination and flow rate to increase, whileincreasing GO amount decreases salt rejection but increases water flow. Accordingly, favarobleresults are obtained for pressures higher than ۱۵ bar and GO weight percent of ۰.۰۳ to ۰.۰۴. FESEMimages show that by embedding GO nano-plates in PES matrix, the obtained nancomposites presentlonger finger-like structure compared to bare TFCs and the surface roughness and porosity of themembrane increases. It can be said that presence of hydrophilic GO in PES matrix facilitates betterabsorption of polar MPD on PES surface and improve its diffusion into pores of the sublayer whichcan result in thinner and deeper polyamide layer.

کلیدواژه ها:

TFC membrane synthesis ، Nano-graphene oxide ، desallination ، FESEM