Effect of graphene oxide on polyvinyl alcohol membrane for textile wastewater treatment

A tremendous amount of energy resources is being wasted in cleaning wastewater to save the environment across the globe. Several different procedures are commercially available to process wastewater. In this work, membrane filtration technique is used to treat the textile wastewater because of its cost effectiveness and low environmental impacts. Mixed Matrix Membrane (MMM) consist of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) in which Graphene Oxide (GO) was added as a filler material. Five different membranes by varying the quantity of GO were prepared. The prepared membrane has been characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD), Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Water Contact Angle (WCA). The prepared membranes have been utilized to treat textile wastewater. The synthesized membranes are used for the elimination of total dissolve solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), Methylene blue (MB) dye and copper metallic ions from textile wastewater. It is concluded that amount of GO has direct correlation with the quality of wastewater treatment. The maximum removal of TDS, TSS, MB and copper ions are found to be 7.42, 23.73, 50.53 and 64.5% respectively and are achieved by 0.02 wt% PVA-GO membrane.