Water hardness refers to the total concentration of calcium and magnesium, which is expressed in terms of the equivalent of calcium carbonate. Excessive amounts of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in water lead to serious consequences for home and industrial use. Cellulose acetate is used as an environmentally friendly, non-toxic and hydrophilic polymer in the manufacture of polymer membranes. In this research, cellulose acetate (CA) was used to prepare polymer membranes used to remove calcium and magnesium ions. Graphene oxide (GO) and FeOOH nanoparticles were also added to the polymer solution to improve membrane performance to remove total water hardness. FTIR, SEM and XRD were also used for characterization of prepared nanostructures. The advantages of this research include the use of biocompatible polymer as well as proper membrane performance at low pressures (about 3 times) which saves energy compared to high pressure membrane processes such as reverse osmosis. The results showed that the addition of FeOOH nanoparticles and graphene oxide plates improved the performance of the prepared membranes.
