Combustion Fabrication of Nanoporous Graphene for Ionic Separation Membranes

Porous graphene membranes hold great promise for high-selectivity separation. Moreover, their practical application is limited by the lack of a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of porous graphene. Here, a rapid and scalable method is developed for the synthesis of porous graphene via partial combustion of graphene oxide imperfectly covered by hydrotalcite. This method is not only less energy- and time-intensive than existing ones, but also allows precise control of pore size. Remarkably, the resulting membrane of porous graphene exhibits high selectivity for K+ and Na+ ( = 3.84) separation. Hence, this facile route for preparing membranes of porous graphene oxide might direct application membranes in environmental, energy, desalination, and biomedical fields.