Composite ultrafiltration membrane tailored by MOF@GO with highly improved water purification performance

• The anchored UiO-66 on GO layers can avoid the layer stacking of GO.
• UiO-66@GO composite combined the unique properties of UiO-66 and GO.
• UiO-66@GO/PES membranes show high water purification performance.
• UiO-66@GO/PES membranes exhibit impressive antifouling performance.

Developing advanced filtration membrane with high flux, good solute rejection and excellent antifouling performance is highly demanded. Hydrophilic graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets are attractive fillers for the preparation of composite membranes for water purification. However, strategies that can fully exploit the advantages and remedy the drawbacks of GO nanosheets are still needed. In this work, UiO-66 was specifically anchored to the GO layers as a porous modifier. The incorporated UiO-66 can effectively prevent the GO layers from stacking and introduce unique properties into the composite (UiO-66@GO). A series of novel composite membranes were prepared with the obtained UiO-66@GO composite and polyethersulfone (PES). As a result, the prepared composite membranes (UiO-66@GO/PES) exhibit high hydrophilicity and water purification performance. Especially, the water flux of composite membrane with 3.0 wt% UiO-66@GO loading shows an increase of 351% and 78% respectively in comparison with that of the PES and GO/PES membranes. Moreover, the UiO-66@GO/PES membranes exhibit good solute rejection and impressive antifouling performance, which is appealing for the application of industrial water purification.

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