Forward osmosis water desalination: Fabrication of graphene oxide-polyamide/polysulfone thin-film nanocomposite membrane with high water flux and low reverse salt diffusion

This paper investigates the synthesis of graphene oxide (GO)-incorporated polyamide thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes on polysulfone substrate for forward osmosis applications. The GO nanosheets were embedded into polyamide layer using different concentrations (0.05−0.2 wt%). The results represented the alteration of polyamide surface by GO nanosheets and enhancing the surface hydrophilicity by increasing the GO loading. The results showed that the water flux for 0.1 wt% GO embedded nanocomposite (TFN) membrane was 34.7 L/m2 h, representing 90% improvement compared to the thin-film composite, while the salt reverse diffusion was reduced up to 39%.