Rosmanisah Mohamat, Suriani Abu Bakar, Muqoyyanah, Azmi Mohamed, Siti Nur Elida Aqmar Mohamad Kamal, Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman, Rosiah Rohani, Mohamad Hafiz Mamat, Mohd Khairul Ahmad, Hamdan Hadi Kusuma, Budi Astuti
This study presents a simpler approach to directly synthesize graphene oxide (GO) via electrochemical exfoliation method utilizing customized triple-tail 1-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium, 1, 4-bis(neopentyoxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)-1, 4-dioxobutane-2-sulfonate (BMIM-TC14) and sodium 1,4-bis(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentylcarbonyl)-1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulfonate (TC14) surfactants. The synthesized GO and titanium dioxide (TiO2) were then used as additives in the fabrication of polyethersulfone (PES)-based nanofiltration (NF) membrane via non-solvent-induced phase separation method. The dye rejection performance and antifouling ability of the fabricated PES/GOBMIM-TC14/TiO2 and PES/GOTC14/TiO2 NF membranes were then investigated by comparing it with pristine PES membrane. It is worth noting that the utilization of triple-tail surfactant obviously enhanced membrane’s morphology in which PES/GOTC14/TiO2 NF membrane showed the highest hydrophilicity as shown by its lowest contact angle (68.98°). According to dead-end cell measurement, higher pure water flux (200.265 L/m2·h) and dye rejection (86.58%) were also obtained by PES/GOTC14/TiO2 NF membrane compared to other fabricated membranes. Higher GO amount in the sample resulted from the utilization of triple-tail surfactants that was believed to improve the dye rejection performance and antifouling abilities. Both GO-based NF membranes also showed a high flux recovery ratio (> 100%) compared to the pristine PES membrane (5.88%), thereby implied their excellent antifouling ability. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Nanotechnology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Tanjung Malim, 35900, Malaysia; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Tanjung Malim, 35900, Malaysia; Research Center for Advanced Materials, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Banten, South Tangerang, 15314, Indonesia; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Tanjung Malim, 35900, Malaysia; Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Skudai, 81310, Malaysia; Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Selangor, Bangi, 43600, Malaysia; NANO-ElecTronic Centre (NET), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Selangor, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; Microelectronic and Nanotechnology−Shamsuddin Research Centre (MiNT-SRC), Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Johor, Batu Pahat, 86400, Malaysia; Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang, Central Java, Semarang, Indonesia; Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia
