Nanostructured Graphene Oxide Composite Membranes with Ultrapermeability and Mechanical Robustness

Shuangmei Xue; Chenhao Ji; Matthew D Kowal; Jenna C Molas; Cheng-Wei Lin; Brian T McVerry; Christopher L Turner; Wai H Mak; Mackenzie Anderson; Mit Muni; Eric M V Hoek; Zhen-Liang Xu; Richard B Kaner

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03780

Nanostructured Graphene Oxide Composite Membranes with Ultrapermeability and Mechanical Robustness

Nano Lett. 2020 Apr 8;20(4):2209-2218. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03780. Epub 2020 Feb 26.

Authors

Shuangmei Xue^{1

2}, Chenhao Ji^{1

2}, Matthew D Kowal¹, Jenna C Molas¹, Cheng-Wei Lin¹, Brian T McVerry¹, Christopher L Turner¹, Wai H Mak¹, Mackenzie Anderson¹, Mit Muni¹, Eric M V Hoek³, Zhen-Liang Xu², Richard B Kaner^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
² State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 200237 Shanghai, P. R. China.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institute of the Environment & Sustainability and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
⁴ Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.

PMID: 32058724
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03780

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have great potential for separation applications due to their low-friction water permeation combined with unique molecular sieving ability. However, the practical use of deposited GO membranes is limited by the inferior mechanical robustness of the membrane composite structure derived from conventional deposition methods. Here, we report a nanostructured GO membrane that possesses great permeability and mechanical robustness. This composite membrane consists of an ultrathin selective GO nanofilm (as low as 32 nm thick) and a postsynthesized macroporous support layer that exhibits excellent stability in water and under practical permeability testing. By utilizing thin-film lift off (T-FLO) to fabricate membranes with precise optimizations in both selective and support layers, unprecedented water permeability (47 L·m^-2·hr^-1·bar^-1) and high retention (>98% of solutes with hydrated radii larger than 4.9 Å) were obtained.

Keywords: graphene oxide; mechanical robustness; membrane separation; molecular sieving; nanostructure; thin-film composite.