Fabrication and characterization of pristine and GO incorporated pristine membranes for water purification

Herein, we have developed pristine (PSF/PEG) and graphene oxide incorporated pristine (PSF/PEG/GO) polysulfone membranes with polyethylene glycol as an additive by phase inversion method. The surface morphology of the membranes were studied by FE-SEM analysis and average pore size was found to reduce in GO incorporated membrane rather than pristine membrane. The lower contact angle value shows that the incorporation of GO nanosheets enhanced the hydrophilicity on the membrane surface. The Young's modulus of the membrane was found by the tensile test measurement. The pure water permeability and salt rejection were tested by dead end ultrafiltration setup and its results revealed that GO incorporated membrane has superior performance than the other. The antibacterial activity was studied by disc diffusion method and indicate that the incorporation of GO nanosheets in the polymer blend render antibacterial activity to the membrane.