Graphene oxide membranes coated on porous ceramic hollow fibers for the removal of pharmaceutical contaminants from wastewater

The proposal of suitable substrates for the deposition of graphene oxide (GO) membranes is crucial to obtain efficient separation processes. Here we applied ceramic hollow fibers as the substrate for deposition of a thin GO layer. The produced alumina hollow fibers presented the desired asymmetric pore size distribution, with an outer sponge-like layer for a proper GO deposition. The average roughness of the outer surface of the ceramic hollow fiber was reduced from (122.5 ± 5.6) nm to (42.32 ± 3.50) nm after the deposition of a GO layer with a thickness of (0.27 ± 0.02) μm. The GO-coated ceramic hollow fiber membrane was able to remove (52.44 ± 7.01) %, (34.49 ± 4.07) % and (27.91 ± 0.11) % of rifampicin, propanol and methylene blue contaminants, respectively, from the aqueous solutions. Thus, GO-coated alumina hollow fiber membranes present potential applications for wastewater treatment and nanofiltration.