Polyamine functionalized graphene oxide polysulfone mixed matrix membranes with improved hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties

Polyamine functionalized graphene oxide (fGO) based polysulfone mixed matrix membranes with enhanced hydrophilicity, permeability and antifouling properties were synthesized. The effect of chain length of the amine in fGO on the performance of the mixed matrix polysulfone membranes was studied using three different polyamines, ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, and triethylenetetramine. Synthesized membranes were characterized for water contact angle, tensile strength, SEM, AFM, EDS, overall porosity, water permeability, fouling resistance, etc. fGO based polysulfone membranes showed higher porosity and permeability, improved structural and mechanical properties, and better anti-fouling potential with high flux recovery after bovine serum albumin (BSA) filtration with little change in BSA rejection. Polysulfone membranes containing 1wt.% ethylenediamine functionalized graphene oxide and 5wt.% polyethylene glycol (PEG-600) additives, displayed remarkably high pure water flux of 170.5LMH/bar, a 3-fold increase over corresponding control membrane, in addition to substantially higher BSA rejection and higher normalized recovered flux after fouling. •Graphene oxide covalently functionalized with polyamines to obtain fGO•fGO blended in polysulfone lowers water contact angle of the membranes.•3-Fold higher flux without significant change in BSA rejection in fGO membranes•Over 90% flux recovery after BSA filtration on simple flushing•Over 15% higher tensile strength obtained for fGO membranes