Preparation and antifouling property of sulfonated graphene oxide/ polysulfone composite membrane

The sulfonated graphene oxide/polysulfone (SGO/PSf) composite membranes were prepared by immersion precipitation-phase inversion method. The hydrophilicity, water flux, porosity, surface Zeta potential, membrane cross section and surface morphology of SGO/PSf composite membranes were measured in detail. In order to analysis the antifouling of membranes, the adhesion forces between SGO/PSf composite membranes and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with self-made BSA probes. The experimental results show that the SGO/PSf composite membrane with 0.50wt% SGO has the largest surface free energy (114.47 mJ/m²) and the best hydrophilicity, due to the synergistic effect of SGO and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The rejection rate of SGO/PSf composite membrane to BSA is 97.5%, and the fouling recovery rate is 80.06%. The adhesion force between BSA and membrane is the least (-0.61 mN/m), which illustrates that the antifouling ability of the SGO/PSf composite membrane with 0.50wt% SGO is the best.