Synthesis and performance of antifouling and
self-cleaning polyethersulfone/graphene oxide composite
membrane functionalized with photoactive
semiconductor catalyst
Nadir Dizge, Hakan Gonuldas, Yasin Ozay, Hasan Ates, Kasim Ocakoglu,
Ersan Harputlu, Saadet Yildirimcan and Ali Unyayar
ABSTRACT
This study was performed to synthesize membranes of polyethersulfone (PES) blended with
graphene oxide (GO) and PES blended with GO functionalized with photoactive semiconductor
catalyst (TiO
2
and ZnO). The antifouling and self-cleaning properties of composite membranes were
also investigated. The GO was prepared from natural graphite powder by oxidation method at low
temperature. TiO
2
and ZnO nanopowders were synthesized by anhydrous sol–gel method. The
surface of TiO
2
and ZnO nanopowders was modified by a surfactant (myristic acid) to obtain a
homogeneously dispersed mixture in a solvent, and then GO was functionalized by loading with
these metal oxide nanopowders. The PES membranes blended with GO and functionalized GO into
the casting solution were prepared via phase inversion method and tested for their antifouling as
well as self-cleaning properties. The composite membranes were synthesized as 14%wt. of PES
polymer with three different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0%wt.) of GO, GO-TiO
2
, and GO-ZnO. The
functionalization of membranes improved hydrophilicity property of membranes as compared to
neat PES membrane. However, the lowest flux was obtained by functionalized membranes with GO-
TiO
2
. The results showed that functionalized membranes demonstrated better self-cleaning property
than neat PES membrane. Moreover, the flux recovery rate of functionalized membranes over five
cycles was higher than that of neat membrane.
Nadir Dizge (corresponding author)
Hakan Gonuldas
Yasin Ozay
Hasan Ates
Ali Unyayar
Department of Environmental Engineering,
Mersin University,
Yenisehir,
Mersin 33343,
Turkey
E-mail: nadirdizge@gmail.com
Kasim Ocakoglu
Ersan Harputlu
Saadet Yildirimcan
Advanced Technology, Research and Application
Center,
Mersin University,
Mersin 33343,
Turkey
Kasim Ocakoglu
Department of Energy Systems Engineering,
Faculty of Technology,
Mersin University,
Mersin 33480,
Turkey
Saadet Yildirimcan
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrical-
Electronics Engineering,
Toros University,
Mersin 33140,
Turkey
Key words | antifouling, composite membrane, functionalized surface, graphene oxide, self-cleaning
surface
INTRODUCTION
Textile processing industry is one of the common sectors in
developing countries. The sector uses excessive amounts of
water and produces wastewater resulting in pollution loading
being too much. The wastewater contains high amount of sus-
pended and dissolved solids, non-reacted dyestuffs (color) and
other chemicals that are used in the different stages of dyeing
and other processing. The presence of even small amounts of
dye in water (e.g. 10–20 mg/L) is highly visible and affects the
water transparency (Rajkumar & Kim ).
So far, many wastewater treatment technologies have
been developed for color removal, including physical,
chemical and biological processes. All of them have some
advantages and drawbacks (Alver & Metin ; Kurt et al.
; De Jager et al. ; Hayat et al. ; Dehghani et al.
). The conventional chemical coagulation process gener-
ates a large volume of hazardous sludge and has a problem
of sludge disposal. However, the biological treatment of tex-
tile wastewater shows low degradation efficiency due to
presence of biologically inert high molecular weight dye-
stuffs (Rajkumar et al. ). Additionally, a combination
of two or more treatment methods for the further treatment
was investigated by different researchers in order to satisfy
the legal requirements (Doumic et al. ; Jung et al. ;
Punzi et al. ).
670 © IWA Publishing 2017 Water Science & Technology | 75.3 | 2017
doi: 10.2166/wst.2016.543
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