Potable water is becoming more critical to health, safety, and well-being of the world’s population. Recent reports and research studies underscore the necessity of having readily available potable water to reduce health risk and the growing scarcity of high quality drinking water sources. Most of the microfiltration technologies are designed to have small pore sizes for bacterial removal, yet allow the passage of viruses, and chemical contaminants. To address these limitations, we have recently developed a coating for microfiltration membranes capable of removing simultaneously hazardous chemicals and inactivate pathogenic microorganisms. Graphene Oxide dispersions, which were made using the modified Hummer’s method, were used to synthesize a nanocomposite containing Chitosan (CS) and Polyethyleneimine (PEI). In this study, the GO-CS-PEI nanocomposites were fabricated in a form of filter coating to remove simultaneously heavy metals, nitrate and microorganisms (i.e. bacteria and virus). Chemical composition of these filters and other synthesis parameters were optimized based on single or multiple responses with the software Design Expert. The coatings were investigated with different microfiltration filter materials to determine the suitability to coat different filters. Additionally, the removal of heavy metals (chromium, copper, lead), nitrate and microorganisms (<i>E. coli, B. subtilis </i>and bacteriophage<i> MS</i>2) were investigated, do determine the multi-functionality of the coatings. Regeneration of the coatings were also investigated with brine solutions, 5% acetic acid solution and saturated sodium bicarbonate. The results show that these coatings show very promising properties to treat multiple contaminants in water.

Development of polymer-graphene oxide based filter coatings for simultaneous removal of heavy metals, nitrate and microorganisms

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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