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. 2022 May 28;12(6):562.
doi: 10.3390/membranes12060562.

Ibuprofen Removal by Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide Coated Polysulfone Nanofiltration Membranes

Asunción M Hidalgo  1 , María Gómez  1 , María D Murcia  1 , Gerardo León  2 , Beatriz Miguel  2 , Israel Gago  2 , Pilar M Martínez  1
Affiliations

Ibuprofen Removal by Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide Coated Polysulfone Nanofiltration Membranes

Asunción M Hidalgo et al. Membranes (Basel). .

Abstract

The presence of pharmaceutical products, and their metabolites, in wastewater has become a focus of growing environmental concern. Among these pharmaceutical products, ibuprofen (IBU) is one of the most consumed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and it can enter the environment though both human and animal consumption, because it is not entirely absorbed by the body, and the pharmaceutical industry wastewater. Nanofiltration has been described as an attractive process for the treatment of wastewater containing pharmaceutical products. In this paper, the modification of a polysulfone nanofiltration membrane by coating with graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has been carried out. The morphology and elemental composition of the active layer of unmodified and modified membranes were analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), respectively. Initial characterization membranes was carried out, studying their water permeability coefficient and their permeate flux and rejection coefficients, at different applied pressures, using magnesium chloride solutions. The behavior of both pristine and coated membranes against ibuprofen solutions were analyzed by studying the permeate fluxes and the rejection coefficients at different pressures and at different contaminant concentrations. The results have shown that both GO and RGO coated membranes lead to higher values of ibuprofene rejection than that of uncoated membrane, the latter being the one that presents better results in the studies of permeability, selectivity, and fouling.

Keywords: graphene oxide; ibuprofen; magnesium chloride; modified membranes; nanofiltration; reduced graphene oxide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SEM images of the membranes (native and modified).
Figure 2
Figure 2
SEM-EDX spectra obtained with (A) the native membrane before and (B) after the experiments.
Figure 3
Figure 3
SEM-EDX spectra corresponding to the membrane modified with reduced graphene oxide (A) before and (B) after the experiments.
Figure 4
Figure 4
SEM-EDX spectra corresponding to the membrane modified with graphene oxide (A) before and (B) after the experiments.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejections of saline solutions (B) against pressures.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejections of saline solutions (B) against pressures.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejection coefficients (B) using 10 ppm ibuprofen solutions against different operating pressures.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejection coefficients (B) using 10 ppm ibuprofen solutions against different operating pressures.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejection coefficients (B) obtained at a pressure of 15 bar using ibuprofen solutions of different concentrations.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Permeate mass flows (A) and rejection coefficients (B) obtained at a pressure of 15 bar using ibuprofen solutions of different concentrations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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