Abstract

The research aimed to develop a statistical analysis of the antifouling properties of nanocomposite membrane using response surface methodology (RSM) for methyl orange (MO) dye wastewater treatment. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were blended directly into polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane. 13 experiment runs were conducted using central composite design (CCD). Nanomaterials concentration and weight ratio of rGO:MWCNTs were manipulated, while the response was normalized flux. Next, the membranes were characterized by pore size, porosity, surface charge, and hydrophilicity. In general, the increase in membrane pore size was mainly due to the addition of nanomaterials. Lastly, the membrane performance was evaluated using dead-end filtration. The best antifouling was achieved by membrane containing 0.023 wt% nanomaterial concentration and 85.36 wt% weight ratio with the highest normalized flux of 0.9132. The antifouling properties of nanocomposite membrane were then modeled statistically using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis to identify the data significance. Lastly, a quadratic model equation was rendered and it is found that normalized flux was significantly affected by nanomaterials concentration. The model was proven to be fitted with moderate accuracy based on the F-value (4.09), p-values (0.0468 <0.05), lack of fit F-value (2.81), R2 value (0.7449), and standard deviation (0.0946).