# Modification of Polysulfone Substrate with GO–PAMAM Nanocomposite for Improved Desalination Performance

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to improve desalination membranes using a nanocomposite, resulting in better water filtration and fouling resistance.

## Contribution

A GO–PAMAM nanocomposite is used to modify polysulfone substrates, achieving high salt rejection and water flux in reverse osmosis membranes.

## Key findings

- A 0.06 wt% GO-PAMAM loading produced a membrane with 95.88% NaCl rejection and 42.6 L m−2 h−1 water flux.
- The optimized membrane retained 93% of its initial flux after fouling, showing improved fouling resistance.
- The method is scalable and offers a substrate-level modification strategy for next-generation RO membranes.

## Abstract

Globally, freshwater scarcity is driving the urgent demand for advanced and new desalination technologies to overcome the shortage of clean water. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes dominate seawater and brackish water treatment but are limited by the permeability–selectivity trade-off, fouling, and structural instability. To overcome these challenges, we employed a phase inversion process to fabricate polysulfone (PSF) supports embedded with a graphene oxide–poly(amidoamine) (GO-PAMAM) nanocomposite at three concentrations (0.03, 0.06, and 0.10 wt%), alongside a pristine control membrane with no GO-PAMAM. Systematic variation in GO-PAMAM loading revealed that a 0.06 wt% nanoparticle helps in producing a more uniform polyamide layer that achieves a high NaCl rejection (95.88%) and higher water flux (42.6 L m−2 h−1). The performance was evaluated at an operating pressure of 20 bar with a feed flow rate of 4 L min−1. The optimized membrane also demonstrated an improved fouling resistance, retaining 93% of its initial flux after fouling. This scalable approach highlights substrate-level modification as an effective strategy for next-generation RO membranes, advancing sustainable and energy-efficient desalination to meet escalating global water demands.