Pressure‐driven water permeation through multilayer graphene nanosheets (Phys. Status Solidi B 10/2017). Issue 10 (13th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kieu, Hieu Trung; Liu, Bo; Zhou, Kun; Law, Adrian Wing‐Keung
• Is Part Of: Physica status solidi. Volume 254:Issue 10(2017)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2017-10-13
• Subjects: Solid state physics -- Periodicals; Solids -- Periodicals; Atomic structure -- Periodicals; 530.41
• DOI: 10.1002/pssb.201770254
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0370-1972

Abstract

Abstract : The understanding of pressure‐driven transport of water molecules through graphene‐based membranes is critical for their application in membrane desalination and water treatment technology. Kieu et al. (article no. 1700074 ) investigated the transport behavior through a stacked graphene multilayer containing slit‐like gaps in each layer. The effects of driving pressure magnitude as well as multilayer configuration parameters are studied, including the number of graphene layers, their porous ratio, gap width and offset, interlayer distance, and gap hydrogenation. The results show that the permeate flux is highly dependent on the number of graphene layers and their porous ratio, but is almost independent of the number of gaps at the same porous ratio as long as the gap width is large enough to allow water permeation. A counterintuitive dependence of the permeate flux with the offset distance is also discovered: the former increases as the latter increases. When the gaps are hydrogenated, the free energy barrier for the water molecules entering the nanochannels is lowered, leading to a much higher permeate flux through the membrane.