Ultrathin Graphene Oxide-Based Nanocomposite Membranes for Water Purification

Two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO)-based lamellar membranes have been widely developed for desalination, water purification, gas separation, and pervaporation. However, membranes with a well-organized multilayer structure and controlled pore size remain a challenge. Herein, an easy and efficient method is used to fabricate MoO2@GO and WO3@GO nanocomposite membranes with controlled structure and interlayer spacing. Such membranes show good separation for salt and heavy metal ions due to the intensive stacking interaction and electrostatic attraction. The as-prepared composite membranes showed high rejection rates (>70%) toward small metal ions such as sodium (Na+) and magnesium (Mg2+) ions. In addition, both membranes also showed high rejection rates >99% for nickel (Ni2+) and lead (Pb2+) ions with good water permeability of 275 +/- 10 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1). We believe that our fabricated membranes will have a bright future in next generation desalination and water purification membranes.

Automated summary

An easy and efficient method was used to fabricate MoO2@GO and WO3@GO nanocomposite membranes with controlled structure and interlayer spacing. These membranes showed good separation for salt and heavy metal ions due to intensive stacking interaction and electrostatic attraction. They exhibited high rejection rates (>70%) for small metal ions such as sodium (Na+) and magnesium (Mg2+) ions, as well as >99% rejection rates for nickel (Ni2+) and lead (Pb2+) ions, with good water permeability of 275 +/- 10 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1). We believe that these fabricated membranes have a bright future in next generation desalination and water purification membranes.