Laminated graphene oxide membrane for recovery of mercury-containing wastewater by pervaporation

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic heavy metal contaminant and has very harmful effects for human health. In this work, Hg-containing wastewater with Hg concentration of 6.36 ppb and 9.4 ppb were recovered with polyethylenimine (PEI) cross-linked graphene oxide (GO) layered membrane (c-GO-PEI) by pervaporation. The influence of ionic type, the concentration of Hg and the feed temperature were investigated. The c-GO-PEI exhibited not only high rejection for salts (> 99.97%), Hg (77.5–100%) and non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC) (67.3–90.8%) but also high flux (30.30 kg·m−2·h−1) to treat with the wastewater. In addition, the flux could be largely recovered after simple washing, indicating the excellent antifouling property of the membrane.