Graphene oxide-modified cellulose acetate membranes with improved Congo red removal efficiency

The casting method was used to obtain membranes from cellulose acetate (CA) with different contents (0.1; 0.4; 0.8 wt%) of graphene oxide (GO). FESEM and FT-IR were used to evaluate the membrane structure. The contact angle was also examined. Congo red was used to evaluate the membrane efficiency. The contact angle of CA/GO membranes decreased from 55.47˚ (CA) to 38.16˚ (0.4 wt% GO), which indicates good dispersion of GO in the CA matrix. CA/GO membranes showed less irreversible fouling, which indicates that reversible fouling predominated over fouling of all membranes. Increasing the membrane porosity, pore size and hydrophilicity results in higher permeability.