posted on 2023-09-21, 17:03authored byYujiao Li, Renqiang Cao, Shaoyuan Shi, Hongbin Cao
Organic fouling was one of key issues limiting the application
of electrodialysis in the treatment of industrial wastewater, which
results in degradation of membranes and high energy consumption. In
this study, a novel graphene oxide (GO)–polymer modified anion
exchange membrane (AEM) for antiorganic fouling was first developed
by layer-by-layer interfacial polymerization (IP). The surface of
AEM was alternately contacted with GO and tannic acid (TA) aqueous
as the water phase and an n-hexane solution of trimesoyl
chloride (TMC) as the organic phase; thus, a multilayer GO–polymer
structure was fabricated on the surface of AEM. Results showed that
the aqueous phase was preferred to be the final treatment of layer-by-layer
interfacial polymerization, which was more conducive to enhancing
hydrophilicity and negative charge density of the membrane surface.
Compared with TA-TMC modified AEM, the introduction of GO nanosheets
with carboxyl groups into aqueous solution significantly increased
the negative charge density of the membrane surface and reduced membrane
resistance. The desalination rate of (GOTA-TMC)1.5 was
mostly close to that of pristine AEM without fouling, exhibiting significant
antifouling performance and good stability. The study provides promising
insights into the modification of ion exchange membranes with functional
materials and a polymer composite layer.