Abstract
Graphene oxide polyamidoamine (GO-PAMAM) was incorporated into polyamide network via interfacial polymerization to prepare novel membranes. Several characterization techniques were applied to investigate the changes in the membrane morphological features, roughness profiles, the interactions between the polymer and molecules, and elemental compositions of the modified membrane surface. The results confirmed the successful incorporation of GO-PAMAM into the membrane surface and showed the enhanced hydrophilicity and the smoother surface of the treated composite membrane. Filtration experiments were performed to examine the permeability, chlorine resistance, antifouling property, and separation capacity of the fabricated composite membrane against salts, heavy metals, and organic contaminants. The GO-based membrane showed an excellent water permeability of roughly 62 Lm−2 h−1 and 0.95 fouling index after 3 h of humic acid filtration. An outstanding rejection of 100% against 100 mg/L of heavy metals and organic pollutants was achieved and about 92% and 87% for (SO4, Mg) and (Ca, Cl) salts' ions. The decrease in contact angle indicates the improvement of hydrophilicity which enhances the water flux. Under chlorine exposure test, only a minor decline in the membrane's rejection was observed, which indicates the membrane has high chlorine resistance. The outstanding permeability, stable removal efficiency, and excellent antifouling and chlorine resistance put the produced GO-PAMAM thin film composite membrane as a superb option for water treatment.