▎ 摘　　要

Improving the productivity without any compromise in selectivity is major challenge in membrane-based separation. Dense reverse osmosis membranes are being used for desalination; however, the first attempt has been made to amalgamate graphene oxide with polysulfone to develop loose composite membranes. With a polymer phase concentration of 21 wt% in dope solution, the membranes are fabricated by phase inversion technique with varying concentration of graphene oxide. The membranes are characterized by various structural and morphological analytical techniques, and the cross-sectional images reveals the porous nature and formation of macrovoids in the substructure of the membrane. This confirms that the incorporation of graphene oxide increases the membrane's porosity from 2.12% for plain polysulfone membranes to 37.1% for the composite membrane with 3.5 wt% graphene oxide additive. The pure water flux, rejection of divalent and monovalent salt solutions and antifouling studies of the composite membranes were evaluated, and it was noted that the membrane with 2.5 wt% graphene oxide nanosheets demonstrated optimum productivity and selectivity. This membrane provided a flux of 68.96 L/m(2)h at 5 bar operating pressure and rejection of 71.6% for MgSO4, 56.3% for MgCl2, 39.2% for Na2SO4 and 12.4% for NaCl salts and demonstrated better antifouling properties using bovine serum albumin as a foulant and exhibits 79.5% flux recovery ratio. [GRAPHICS]