Ultrafast water‐selective permeation through graphene oxide membrane with water transport promoters. Issue 2 (16th October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liang, Feng; Liu, Quan; Zhao, Jing; Guan, Kecheng; Mao, Yangyang; Liu, Gongping; Gu, Xuehong; Jin, Wanqin
• Is Part Of: AIChE journal. Volume 66:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-10-16
• Subjects: graphene oxide -- interlayer channel -- membrane -- water transport promoter -- water‐selective permeation; Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; Génie chimique -- Périodiques; 660.28
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.16812
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-1541

Abstract

Abstract: Graphene oxide (GO), as a representative two‐dimensional material, has shown great prospect in developing high‐performance separation membranes via forming ordered and tunable nanochannels. However, for aqueous molecular separations, the implementation of an excellent separation performance remains a critical challenge due to the membrane swelling phenomenon and the trade‐off effect between permeation flux and separation factor. Herein, a facile and tunable approach is presented for introducing water transport promoters into GO interlayer channels to construct water transport highways. The combination of covalently cross‐linked channel structure, facilitated water‐selective sorption, and expedited water‐preferential diffusion overcome the trade‐off effect, achieving a superior performance from an ultrathin GO membrane with a flux of 5.94 kg/m 2 ∙h and a water/butanol separation factor of 3, 965, which exceeds the performance of state‐of‐the‐art membranes for water/butanol separation. The strategy proposed here is straightforward, holding great potential to produce high‐efficiency GO and other two‐dimensional (2D)‐material membranes for precise aqueous molecular separations.