Investigation of boron nitride/silver/graphene oxide nanocomposite on separation and antibacterial improvement of polyethersulfone membranes in wastewater treatment

This research introduces a practicable and straightforward procedure for improving separation performance by blending 2D nanocomposite of functionalized hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets/graphene oxide/silver (FBN-GO-Ag) polyethersulfone (PES) membrane. The objective of fabricating such membrane was to enhance the permeability, antifouling and antibacterial property, separation ability, and mechanical strength. The FBN-GO-Ag nanocomposite was synthesized, characterized, and blended at different constituent concentrations in casting solutions of the membranes. Physicochemical characterization illustrated approximately 21% and 22% increment of hydrophilicity and porosity of the modified membrane with 1 wt% FBN-GO-Ag, respectively. Meanwhile, the addition of 1 wt% FBN-GO-Ag led to an increase of 40% in permeability (80 L/m2 h bar) besides the dye removal and fouling resistance improvement compared to the unfilled membrane. Furthermore, PES membrane containing 1 wt% FBN-GO-Ag exhibited 88.9% and 77.7% rejection of reactive black 5 and reactive red 120, respectively, which is associated with the enhancement of negative surface charge of the membranes. Due to the inherent antibacterial properties of all three combined nanomaterials, the prepared nanocomposite membrane showed excellent antibacterial performance. [Display omitted] •FBN-GO-Ag/PES nanocomposite membrane was fabricated via phase inversion procedure.•Membrane hydrophilicity and flux was increased by adding FBN-GO-Ag.•1 wt% FBN-GO-Ag membrane showed the maximum water (159 LMH) and BSA solution flux.•Adding FBN-GO-Ag improved antibacterial and antifouling properties of membranes.•0.5 wt% FBN-GO-Ag nanocomposite membrane showed the maximum FRR (83.6%).