No abstract

Fabrication of membrane for desalination process with high performance is the objective of this study. The addition of Graphene Oxide (GO) in cellulose acetate/polyethylene glycol (CA/PEG) with a ratio of 80:20 was prepared by a surface coating method. In this study, the composition of GO was compared, with composition ranging from 0.0025 to 0.0125 wt% to the mass of the solvent. The characteristics of membranes were observed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier-Transformed Infra-Red (FTIR), contact angle analysis and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). While its performance was observed by analyzing salt rejection, flux permeate and permeability of the membranes. SEM analysis shows that membrane exhibits asymmetric membrane with sponge-like structure. FTIR results show that the peak area of –OH bonding decreases with the addition of GO. This result is in agreement with the contact angle analysis. The experiment results shows that membrane with the best performance is CA/PEG membrane with the addition of 0.01 wt% GO with salt rejection (%R) of 37%, flux permeate (F) of 1356 L/m2.h, and permeability (P) of 0.0013 L/m2.h.kPa.

Polymeric membrane must be strong during the reverse osmosis process. Carbon-based materials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, and its derivative graphene oxide (GO) have strong mechanical strength, high resistance to strong acids/ alkaline and organic solvents, and easy in accessibility. In this study, GO were blendingd into Cellulose Acetate/ Polyethylene Glycol (CA/PEG) membranes prepared by phase inversion method. Performance of the membrane was evaluated from the water flux, salt rejection, and permeability. Morphology, hydrofilicity, tensile strength were isvestigated by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier-Transformed Infra-Red (FTIR) and contact angle analysis, and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), respectively. The experiment results show that hydrophilicity and porosity increase with the addition of GO with the addition of 0.005% GO exhibits the highest value of them resulting membrane with better flux and salt rejection values as compared to the GO-free membrane. With the addition of 0.005 wt% GO resulted in salt rejection (%R) 83.3% and flux permeate (F) 2194 L/m2.h. and tensile strength of 0.0148 Mpa. Membrane with CA/PEG/GO has more advantages, where GO affects the porosity of the membrane by increasing the pore size such as fingers and reducing the thickness of the wall which will result in increased membrane performance ability.