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/m²h). 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 5^th 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.