Development of PVA/GO Nanocomposites Membranes for Air-Filtration and Purification

Abstract

Climate change due to the air pollution is actually one of the largest environmental challenges worldwide. Preparation and development of stable and highly efficient nanocomposite membranes remain a significant goal because of its enormous importance of controlling the environment. This study investigated a simple synthesis of poly (vinyl alcohol)/graphene oxide (PVA/GO) nanocomposite membrane for air pollutant remediation. The chemical and physical structures, morphologies, and conductivities were investigated as a function of the GO loading. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficiency of novel PVA/GO membranes in the removal of both formaldehyde (FA) as a pollutant VOCs model and SO2 as a model of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to identify good predictors for selecting the appropriate optimal GO content in GO/PVA nanocomposites that exhibit higher air pollutant removal performance as well as design an economical GO/PVA nanocomposite air purification system for removal of the air pollutants in the field. To our knowledge, field application of GO/PVA nanocomposite volatile organic compound (VOCS) filters and control of SO2 gas pollutants from indoor air has not yet been realized. The nanocomposite membranes with an optimum GO content exhibited higher removal performance for the FA gas pollutant, this enhancement reached 90% in the laboratory scale. However, during the application in the field, it showed 75% FA removed from the indoor air. These new nano-membranes reveal also wide efficiencies of SO2 removal (80%) when applied in the field. Therefore, this filter system proved an excellent efficacy in the removal of air pollutants and could be more promising in various industrial applications.