The use of liquid membrane, which also classified as polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) can help to remove dye exist in textile effluents and reduce the negative impacts towards the surrounding environment. In this study, the extraction of methylene blue (MB) dye from aqueous solution was performed by applying PIMs. The fabricated PIMs were successfully formulated using poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) as base polymer, methyltrioctylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336) as the carrier, tetrahydrofuran (THF) as solvent and graphene oxide (GO) as an additive. The composition of GO in the formulation of membrane was varied in order to identify the optimum PIM with the highest MB dye extraction efficiency. The fabricated PIMs were characterized chemically and physically by performing Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Ion Exchange Capacity (IEC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Contact Angle (CA) and water uptake. The composition of PIM with 20 wt% PVDF-co-HFP, 10 wt% Aliquat 336, 70 wt% THF and 1.5 wt% GO was indicated as the optimized membrane in the extraction of MB dye from aqueous solution. The maximum extraction efficiency of 99.98 % was achieved a 10 mg/L of initial dye concentration in acidic condition of pH 2 using the optimize PIM. Based on the kinetic data obtained, the extraction kinetics was indicated to fit be with the pseudo-second order model. Hence, this research can be concluded that tl addition of GO in the composition of membrane able to enhance the properties ar performance of the PIMs.
Keywords: Polymer Inclusion Membrane (PIM), Graphene Oxide (GO), Dye Extracti, Membrane Characterization, Kinetic Studies