Rosmanisah Mohamat, Suriani Abu Bakar, Azmi Mohamed, Muqoyyanah Muqoyyanah, Mohd Hafiz Dzarfan Othman, Mohamad Hafiz Mamat, Mohd Firdaus Malek, Mohd Khairul Ahmad, Yulkifli Yulkifli, Seeram Ramakrishna
Exposure of synthetic dye, such as methylene blue (MB), in water bodies led to a serious threat to living things because they are toxic and non-degradable. Amongst the introduced dye removal methods, membrane separation process can be considered a powerful technique for treating dye contamination. However, this method commonly suffered from drawbacks, such as short membrane lifetime, low permeability and selectivity. To overcome these issues, graphene oxide (GO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) were used as additives to fabricate polyethersulfone (PES)- and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based hybrid membranes via non-solvent-induced phase separation method. Prior to membrane fabrication, GO was synthesised via electrochemical exfoliation method assisted by customised triple-tail surfactant. The potential of PES- and PVDF-based hybrid membranes for wastewater treatment has been discussed widely. However, direct comparison between these two polymeric membranes is not critically discussed for MB dye separation application yet. Therefore, this study is aimed at evaluating the performance of different types of polymers (e.g. PES and PVDF) in terms of membrane morphology, properties, dye rejection and antifouling ability. Results showed that the incorporation of GO and TiO2 alters the morphology of the fabricated membranes and affects dye rejection further, as well as their antifouling performance. In contrast with pristine membrane, PES-GO/TiO2 and PVDF-GO/TiO2 possessed high hydrophilicity, as indicated by their low contact angle (67.38° and 62.12°, respectively). Based on this study, PVDF-GO/TiO2 showed higher porosity value (94.88%), permeability (87.32 L/m2hMPa) and MB rejection rate (92.63%), as well as flux recovery ratio value of > 100% as compared with others. Overall, the incorporation of GO and TiO2 with PVDF polymer are proven to be effective hybrid materials of membrane fabrication for dye rejection application in the near future. The polymer material’s intrinsic properties can affect the attributes of the fabricated membrane. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
Nanotechnology Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 35900 Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia; Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 35900 Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia; Research Center for Advanced Materials, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), South Tangerang, Banten, 15314, Indonesia; Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Skudai, 81310, Malaysia; NANO-ElecTronic Centre (NET), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Selangor, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; NANO-SciTech Lab (NST), Centre for Functional Materials and Nanotechnology, Institute of Science (IOS), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia; Microelectronic and Nanotechnology−Shamsuddin Research Centre (MiNT-SRC), Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johor, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, 86400, Malaysia; Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia; Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Block EA #07-08, Singapore, 117575, Singapore
