Antibacterial and Adsorption Properties of Sulfonated GO-PVDF Nanocomposite Ultrafiltration Membranes for Environmental Applications
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 10
Abstract
The application of nanocomposite materials in membrane bioreactors (MBRs) is attractive because of their great potential to enhance the filtration performance and antifouling. This study modified polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) ultrafiltration membranes using graphene oxide (GO) and sulfonation GO (SGO). The antibacterial properties of nanocomposite membranes were tested using three Gram-negative bacterial species (Pantoea agglomerans, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas graminis). The results showed that PVDF-GO and PVDF-SGO ultrafiltration (UF) membranes had significantly nontoxic properties (, significance at ), indicating that it was innocuous to bacterial growth. On the other hand, the nanoparticles (NPs) (GO and SGO) had approximately 50% antibacterial activity based on the viability tests, disc diffusion, and TEM analysis. The performance of membranes was examined using a pure water prermeabilty flux test. The water flux of the PVDF-SGO membrane () significantly increased compared with that of the GO membrane (). Furthermore, the PVDF-SGO membrane had a 65.2% removal of methylene blue (MB), indicating that the SGO incorporated in the membrane enhanced the absorption capacity of heterocyclic aromatic compounds such as MB. The nanocomposite membranes (PVDF-GO and PVDF-SGO) are more sustainable than the PVDF membrane and are promising materials for MBRs because they have higher permeability and absorption capacity, and re harmless to bacterial activity.
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Data Availability Statement
No data, models, or code were generated or used during the study.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program though the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1I1A3054816).
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Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 10 • October 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 13, 2021
Accepted: Jun 2, 2021
Published online: Jul 30, 2021
Published in print: Oct 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 30, 2021
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