Abstract:
The permeation of polar molecules (water and ammonia), non-polar dichloromethane and a mixture of ammonia and dichloromethane through graphene oxide (GO)/polymer matrix composite membranes was investigated. Results indicated that a hydrophilic poly(2-acrylamido -2 -methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS) based membrane had the highest permeability for water and ammonia due to the high hydrophilicity of the polymer matrix while a hydrophobic polyurethane (PU)-based membrane had the best permeation performance for dichloromethane and the worst performance for water and ammonia. Adding the GO to PU or PAMPS polymers increases the negative charge due to the negatively charged nature of GO caused by its oxygen-containing functional groups, which increases the amounts of absorbed water and ammonia due to the positive charge of the hydrogen atoms in these two molecules.