A novel conductive rGO/ZnO/PSF membrane with superior water flux for electrocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

Abstract Ultrafiltration membranes have shown remarkable potential in the purification of textile printing and dyeing wastewater. However, ultrafiltration membranes have some disadvantages in wastewater treatment, such as membrane fouling and trade-off effect. Hence, a novel polysulfone (PSF)-reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-zinc oxide (ZnO) composite conductive ultrafiltration membrane was prepared via the simple and green method. The combination of conductive ultrafiltration membrane and external electric field could treat dye wastewater. The conductive rGO/ZnO/PSF membranes have high water flux (296 L m−2 h−1 Bar−1) and favorable removal rates (>90%) for Congo Red (CR), Methyl Orange (MO), and Methylene Blue (MB). Besides, rGO/ZnO/PSF membrane also showed excellent antifouling ability, which had a flux recovery rate of 93% after filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) under applied electric field. Due to the electrocatalytic cleaning, rGO/ZnO/PSF membrane exhibited a 90% flux recovery after filtering the dye. The rGO/ZnO/PSF membrane has good separation efficiency, electrocatalytic stability, and fouling resistance, and can effectively solve the purification of textile printing and dyeing.