Efficient removal of 2,4-dichlorophenol from contaminated water and alleviation of membrane fouling by high flux polysulfone-iron oxide/graphene oxide composite hollow fiber membranes

Phenolic compounds are the harmful water contaminants, which severely affect living beings. Therefore, it is essential to remove the phenolic compounds, e.g., 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) from water sources. In this study, polysulfone-iron oxide/graphene oxide composite hollow fiber membranes were fabricated, which showed oxygen-enriched functional groups and improved hydrophilicity. With 0.5 wt.% iron oxide/graphene oxide nanohybrid in polysulfone hollow fiber membranes, remarkably high pure water flux was measured (339.8 +/- 9.9 L/m(2)h). The improved antifouling property was achieved with a flux recovery of 95.8 %. The 2,4-DCP separation efficiency was measured to be 96.5 +/- 1.6 % and 70.5 +/- 2.1 % from the contaminated lab water and lake water, respectively. The separation efficiency of the composite membranes remained almost the same at the 5th filtration cycle. These results indicated that the polysulfone-iron oxide/graphene oxide composite hollow fiber membranes are promising in the efficient removal of the harmful 2,4-DCP from water sources.