Stable porous graphene oxide membranes enabled by confined growth of 2D MOF nanosheets for high-performance desalination.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42139361.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aee2550 and PMC identifier 13178534.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) membranes hold substantial promise for this application but are limited by structural instability in aqueous environments. This study introduces a composite membrane based on porous graphene oxide (PGO) with two-dimensional copper 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (CuBDC) nanosheets grown in situ. The confined growth of CuBDC within the PGO laminar structure, via strong coordination between Cu<sup>2+</sup> ions and oxygen-containing groups on PGO, not only stabilizes the PGO laminar structure but also induces NaCl rejection due to the appropriate pore size of the CuBDC. The resulting composite membrane demonstrated a high-water flux of 124 kg m<sup>-2</sup> hour<sup>-1</sup> in conventional pervaporation and 89 kg m<sup>-2</sup> hour<sup>-1</sup> in low-energy water carrier pervaporation, with NaCl rejection consistently above 99.9%. Technoeconomic analysis reveals that desalination using the fabricated membrane in a water-carrier pervaporation process results in a low annual expenditure. Overall, this study offers a promising strategy for stabilizing PGO membranes with excellent selectivity, paving the way for more energy-efficient desalination technologies.