A Two-Dimensional Lamellar Membrane: MXene Nanosheet Stacks

Li Ding; Yanying Wei; Yanjie Wang; Hongbin Chen; Jürgen Caro; Haihui Wang

doi:10.1002/anie.201609306

A Two-Dimensional Lamellar Membrane: MXene Nanosheet Stacks

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Feb 6;56(7):1825-1829. doi: 10.1002/anie.201609306. Epub 2017 Jan 10.

Authors

Li Ding¹, Yanying Wei¹, Yanjie Wang¹, Hongbin Chen¹, Jürgen Caro², Haihui Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, 510640, Guangzhou, China.
² Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Leibniz University of Hannover, Callinstrasse 3A, 30167, Hannover, Germany.

PMID: 28071850
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201609306

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are promising candidates for advanced water purification membranes. A new kind of lamellar membrane is based on a stack of 2D MXene nanosheets. Starting from compact Ti₃ AlC₂ , delaminated nanosheets of the composition Ti₃ C₂ T_x with the functional groups T (O, OH, and/or F) can be produced by etching and ultrasonication and stapled on a porous support by vacuum filtration. The MXene membrane supported on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate shows excellent water permeance (more than 1000 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1 ) and favorable rejection rate (over 90 %) for molecules with sizes larger than 2.5 nm. The water permeance through the MXene membrane is much higher than that of the most membranes with similar rejections. Long-time operation also reveals the outstanding stability of the MXene membrane for water purification.

Keywords: MXenes; Ti3C2TX; membranes; separation; two-dimensional nanosheets.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't