Hydrophilic and antimicrobial properties of hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan/graphene oxide membrane for dye rejection

Graphene oxide (GO) -based membranes have attracted attention in dye wastewater treatment in recent years. However, water permeance and methyl orange (MO) rejection need improvement. In this work, a simple method was used to incorporate hydroxypropyl trimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan (HTCC) to enhance the charge of the membrane. An optimized HTCC-GO composite membrane (HGM membrane) containing a 2: 1 ratio of HTCC to GO membrane significantly improved MO rejection (96.94 %), and achieved high rejection of the other three dye molecules studied in this work (>93 %), and also realized a two-fold higher water permeance (28.09 L m −2  h −1  bar −1 ) compared to a pure GO membrane. Furthermore, the hydrophilic and antimicrobial properties of HGM membranes are enhanced as a result of quaternary ammonium groups in HTCC. Moreover, the acid-base stability of HGM membranes was also improved in comparison to the original GO membrane. This work provides a reference for the modification of GO-based membranes and their application in the direction of practical treatment of dye wastewater.