Fabrication of cross-linked highly stable graphene oxide membrane for dye removal

Clean water is essential to our health, community and economy, but also its availability remains a major challenge even today. Graphene oxide membranes have shown significant promise in addressing this problem. A great deal of research has been conducted and is still being done to produce a stable graphene oxide membrane with high permeability and rejection rate. In this study, a highly stable GO membrane was fabricated using a simple vacuum filtration technique by the addition of TRIS and PEG. This is the first paper to discuss the potential for this combination to remove dyes and how it can result in the formation of a stable membrane. The membranes were characterised in detail using various characterisation techniques such as XRD, XPS, AFM, etc., and their ability in dye removal was investigated using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The stability of the developed membranes was tested using ultrasonication, and it was found that the membranes could remove the organic dyes (MB and CR) even at high concentration of dye (20 ppm) and with rejection percentage of 95% for both dyes. Furthermore, the membranes showed good water permeability with a value of 183 Lm(-2)h(-1)bar (-1) emphasising its high potential for water purification.