MOF-Like 3D Graphene-Based Catalytic Membrane Fabricated by One-Step Laser Scribing for Robust Water Purification and Green Energy Production

Xinyu Huang; Liheng Li; Shuaifei Zhao; Lei Tong; Zheng Li; Zhuiri Peng; Runfeng Lin; Li Zhou; Chang Peng; Kan-Hao Xue; Lijuan Chen; Gary J Cheng; Zhu Xiong; Lei Ye

doi:10.1007/s40820-022-00923-4

MOF-Like 3D Graphene-Based Catalytic Membrane Fabricated by One-Step Laser Scribing for Robust Water Purification and Green Energy Production

Nanomicro Lett. 2022 Aug 23;14(1):174. doi: 10.1007/s40820-022-00923-4.

Authors

Xinyu Huang^#^{1

2}, Liheng Li^#¹, Shuaifei Zhao^#³, Lei Tong¹, Zheng Li¹, Zhuiri Peng¹, Runfeng Lin¹, Li Zhou⁴, Chang Peng⁵, Kan-Hao Xue¹, Lijuan Chen⁶, Gary J Cheng⁷, Zhu Xiong^{8

9}, Lei Ye^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ School of Optical and Electronic Information and Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People's Republic of China.
² Hubei Yangtze Memory Laboratories, Wuhan, 430205, People's Republic of China.
³ Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, 3216, Australia.
⁴ Key Laboratory of New Processing Technology for Nonferrous Metal and Materials (Ministry of Education), Guangxi Key Laboratory of Optical and Electronic Materials and Devices, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, People's Republic of China.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hunan Agricultural University, Hunan, 410128, People's Republic of China.
⁶ School of Material Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan, Hunan Province, People's Republic of China.
⁷ School of Industrial Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Centre, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA. gjcheng@purdue.edu.
⁸ Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, 3216, Australia. xiongzhu@gzhu.edu.cn.
⁹ Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. xiongzhu@gzhu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ School of Optical and Electronic Information and Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, People's Republic of China. leiye@hust.edu.cn.
¹¹ Hubei Yangtze Memory Laboratories, Wuhan, 430205, People's Republic of China. leiye@hust.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Increasing both clean water and green energy demands for survival and development are the grand challenges of our age. Here, we successfully fabricate a novel multifunctional 3D graphene-based catalytic membrane (3D-GCM) with active metal nanoparticles (AMNs) loading for simultaneously obtaining the water purification and clean energy generation, via a "green" one-step laser scribing technology. The as-prepared 3D-GCM shows high porosity and uniform distribution with AMNs, which exhibits high permeated fluxes (over 100 L m^-2 h^-1) and versatile super-adsorption capacities for the removal of tricky organic pollutants from wastewater under ultra-low pressure-driving (0.1 bar). After adsorption saturating, the AMNs in 3D-GCM actuates the advanced oxidization process to self-clean the fouled membrane via the catalysis, and restores the adsorption capacity well for the next time membrane separation. Most importantly, the 3D-GCM with the welding of laser scribing overcomes the lateral shear force damaging during the long-term separation. Moreover, the 3D-GCM could emit plentiful of hot electrons from AMNs under light irradiation, realizing the membrane catalytic hydrolysis reactions for hydrogen energy generation. This "green" precision manufacturing with laser scribing technology provides a feasible technology to fabricate high-efficient and robust 3D-GCM microreactor in the tricky wastewater purification and sustainable clean energy production as well.

Keywords: 3D graphene; Catalytic membrane; Hydrogen production; Laser scribing; Water purification.