Large-area ultra-thin GO nanofiltration membranes prepared by a pre-crosslinking rod coating technique

Kai Zhou; Changsheng Guo; Feng Gan; John H Xin; Hui Yu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.107

Large-area ultra-thin GO nanofiltration membranes prepared by a pre-crosslinking rod coating technique

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jun 15:640:261-269. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.107. Epub 2023 Feb 24.

Authors

Kai Zhou¹, Changsheng Guo¹, Feng Gan¹, John H Xin², Hui Yu³

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Advanced Textile Materials, School of Textile Materials and Engineering, Wuyi University, Jiangmen 529020, China.
² Institute of Textiles & Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. Electronic address: john.xin@polyu.edu.hk.
³ Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory for Advanced Textile Materials, School of Textile Materials and Engineering, Wuyi University, Jiangmen 529020, China. Electronic address: yuhuihui_2000@163.com.

PMID: 36863182
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.02.107

Abstract

In existing separation membranes, it is difficult to quickly produce large-area graphene oxide (GO) nanofiltration membranes with high permeability and high rejection, which is the bottleneck of industrialization. In this study, a pre-crosslinking rod-coating technique is reported. A GO-P-Phenylenediamine (PPD) suspension was obtained by chemically crosslinking GO and PPD for 180 min. After scraping and coating with a Mayer rod, the ultra-thin GO-PPD nanofiltration membrane with an area of 400 cm² and a thickness of 40 nm was prepared in 30 s. The PPD formed an amide bond with GO to improve its stability. It also increased the layer spacing of GO membrane, which could improve the permeability. The prepared GO nanofiltration membrane had a 99 % rejection rate for dyes such as methylene blue, crystal violet, and Congo red. Meanwhile, the permeation flux reached to 42 LMH/bar, which was 10 times that of the GO membrane without PPD crosslinking, and it still maintained excellent stability under strongly acidic and basic conditions. This work successfully solved the problems of GO nanofiltration membranes, including the large-area fabrication, high permeability and high rejection.

Keywords: Graphene oxide nanofiltration membrane; High water flux; Large-area preparation; Pre-crosslinking Rod-coating technique; Rejection of dye.