Bioenergetics: Open Access

Abstract

Ultra-wetting graphene based ultrafiltration membranes for efficient wastewater treatment

J Antony ,Prince Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

Graphene, an sp2-hybridized, two-dimensional carbon material is gaining much attention in the field of membrane science and engineering. Theoretical analysis have also predicted that graphene based membranes may exhibit orders of magnitude with greater permeability than the current state of the art membranes. However, most of these studies are based on a single layer of graphene sheet. Experimental studies also show that it is difficult to fabricate leak-free porous graphene membranes with large surface area. In this work, we report a facile method to fabricate graphene-based composite ultrafiltration membrane in real downstream application. In order to achieve this, the wettability of graphene was increased by amine and carboxyl functionalization. Graphene was first carboxylated, using highly concentrated acid mixture (hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acids).

Published Date: 2021-03-27; Received Date: 2021-03-10