Graphene oxide doped polysulfone membrane adsorbers for the removal of organic contaminants from water

This work explored polysulfone (PS) - graphene oxide (GO) based porous membranes (PS-GO) as adsorber of seven selected organic contaminants of emerging concern (EOCs) including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, a dye and a surfactant from water. PS-GO was prepared by phase inversion method starting from a PS and GO mixture (5% w/w of GO). The porous PS-GO membranes showed asymmetric and highly porous micrometer sized pores on membrane top (diameter ?20 ?m) and bottom (diameter ?2-5 ?m) surfaces and tens of microns length finger like pores in the section. Nanomechanical mapping reveals patches of a stiffer material with Young modules comprised in the range 15-25 GPa, not present in PS pure membranes that are compatible with the presence of GO flakes on the membrane surfaces. PS-GO was immersed in EOCs spiked tap water and the adsorbance efficiency at different contact times and pH evaluated by HPLC analysis. Ofloxacin (OFLOX), benzophenone-3 (BP-3), rhodamine b (Rh), diclofenac (DCF) and triton X-100 (TRX) were removed with efficiency higher than 90% after 4 h treatments. Regeneration of PS-GO and reuse possibilities were demonstrated by washing with ethanol. The adsorption efficiencies toward OFLOX, Rh, DCF and carbamazepine (CBZ) were significantly higher than those of pure PS membrane. Moreover, PS-GO outperformed a commercial granular activated carbon (GAC) at low contact times and compared well at longer contact time for OFLOX, Rh, BP-3 and TRX suggesting the suitability of the newly introduced material for drinking water treatment.