Desalination Aspects of PSSA-g-PEG Copolymer and its Graphene Composite Membranes

Abstract

In this study, polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSSA) was copolymerized with 1% polyethylene glycol (PEG 600), then Graphene (G) was added at different individually percent of 0.1, 0.5 and 1%, respectively. The resultant membrane designated as (PSSA-g-PEG)/G and was characterized using FTIR, SEM, XRD and TGA analysis. Then, membrane efficiency was determined by measuring the salt rejection and the water flux measured under different parameters such as temperature, pressure and composites concentrations. We found that, increasing temperature and pressure increased membrane water flux, but increasing G portion slightly increased water flux except before and at concentration 0.5% where increasing water flux was growing.