(695d) Graphene Oxide Incorporated Thin-Film Composite Membranes for Forward Osmosis Applications

In this work, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets with deep oxidation degree are incorporated into the polyamide selective layer to develop a novel thin-film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membrane with high water flux, good anti-biofouling property and reasonable draw solute rejection. The membrane morphology, surface hydrophilicity and FO performance of the GO embedded TFC membranes with different GO loading are investigated systematically. The influence of the draw solution concentration is also studied. The water flux of the GO incorporated TFC membrane exhibits nearly one time higher than that of the TFC membrane without embedded GO. The GO-embedded TFC membrane also possesses low fouling propensity in FO test. This study may provide important insights in developing novel TFC FO membranes in the future.