Antifouling UV-treated GO/PES hollow fiber membranes in a membrane bioreactor (MBR)

Abstract

Single layer graphene oxide (SLGO) was studied as a novel coating material to drastically improve the antifouling performance of polyether sulfone (PES) hollow fiber (HF) membranes in membrane bioreactor (MBR) application. By selectively modifying the membrane surface, only a small amount of SLGO coating (6.2 mg m⁻²) was needed to achieve acceptable membrane performance. The UV treatment of the SLGO coating further assisted in improving the antifouling properties of the as-prepared PES HF membranes. By comparing the transmembrane pressure of pristine PES HF and PES_GO_{6.20_}UV_{X (X = 0–1.5 h)} membranes in a MBR for wastewater treatment at a fixed water flux, the PES_GO_{6.20_}UV_1.0 membrane coated with 1 h UV-treated SLGO was demonstrated to substantially relieve the bio-fouling problem. To understand the influence of SLGO modification on membrane performance, FESEM, ATR-FTIR, and AFM analyses were conducted to characterize the as-prepared membranes, and the SLGO deposition mechanism was also proposed in this study.