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Research Article

Well-structured 3D channels within GO-based membranes enable ultrafast wastewater treatment

Huaqiang Fu1,§, Zhe Wang2,3,§, Peng Li2( ), Wei Qian2, Zixin Zhang1, Xin Zhao2, Hao Feng1, Zhugen Yang4, Zongkui Kou1,3( ), Daping He1,2( )
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Hubei Engineering Research Center of RF-Microwave Technology and Application, School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK430AL, UK

§ Huaqiang Fu and Zhe Wang contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

The well-structured three-dimensional (3D) water channels within graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes can synchronize ultrahigh water permeance and purification performance for highly efficient wastewater treatment.

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes have been widely studied for realizing efficient wastewater treatment, due to their easily functionalizeable surfaces and tunable interlayer structures. However, the irregular structure of water channels within GO-based membrane has largely confined water permeance and prevented the simultaneously improvement of purification performance. Herein, we purposely construct the well-structured three-dimensional (3D) water channels featuring regular and negatively-charged properties in the GO/SiO2 composite membrane via in situ close-packing assembly of SiO2 nanoparticles onto GO nanosheets. Such regular 3D channels can improve the water permeance to a record-high value of 33,431.5 ± 559.9 L·m−2·h−1 (LMH) bar−1, which is several-fold higher than those of current state-of-the-art GO-based membranes. We further demonstrate that benefiting from negative charges on both GO and SiO2, these negatively-charged 3D channels enable the charge selectivity well toward dye in wastewater where the rejection for positive-charged and negative-charged dye molecules is 99.6% vs. 7.2%, respectively. The 3D channels can also accelerate oil/water (O/W) separation process, in which the O/W permeance and oil rejection can reach 19,589.2 ± 1,189.7 LMH bar−1 and 98.2%, respectively. The present work unveils the positive role of well-structured 3D channels on synchronizing the remarkable improvement of both water permeance and purification performance for highly efficient wastewater treatment.

Keywords

graphene oxidemembraneswastewater treatmentwater channelscharge-selectivity

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Nano Research
Volume 16 Issue 2,
February 2023
Pages 1826-1834
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4970-6
Cite this article:
Fu H, Wang Z, Li P, et al. Well-structured 3D channels within GO-based membranes enable ultrafast wastewater treatment. Nano Research, 2023, 16(2): 1826-1834. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4970-6
Topics:
GrapheneSiO2 nanoparticles

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Received: 13 August 2022
Revised: 22 August 2022
Accepted: 25 August 2022
Published: 03 September 2022
© Tsinghua University Press 2022
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