Research Center for Membrane and Film Technology, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
Nano Lett. 2021 Apr 28;21(8):3495-3502. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00176. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Water and ion transport in nanochannels is an intriguing topic that has been extensively investigated in several energy- and environment-related research fields. Recently developed two-dimensional (2D) materials are ideal building blocks for constructing confined nanochannels by self-stacking. Among these, graphene oxide (GO) is the most frequently employed as the starting material because of its excellent solution processability. Since solvation of the GO nanostructure usually impairs the function of nanochannels, in this study, chemically converted graphene was prepared using a one-step method, to simultaneously acquire the desired stability and functionality of the nanochannels. The confined channels with high charge densities are capable of excluding ∼90% NaCl solutes from water in a pressure-driven filtration process. This surpasses the performance of most GO desalination membranes reported in the literature. Thus, this study provides useful information for the feasible development of ion-exclusion nanochannel membranes based on the proposed nanochannel-confined charge repulsion mechanism.
水和离子在纳米通道中的传输是一个有趣的话题，在能源和环境相关的多个研究领域都得到了广泛的研究。最近开发的二维（2D）材料是通过自堆叠构建受限纳米通道的理想构建块。在这些材料中，氧化石墨烯（GO）因其出色的溶液加工性能而最常被用作起始材料。由于 GO 纳米结构的溶剂化通常会损害纳米通道的功能，因此，在本研究中，使用一步法制备了化学转化石墨烯，以同时获得纳米通道所需的稳定性和功能性。在压力驱动过滤过程中，具有高电荷密度的受限通道能够将约 90%的 NaCl 溶质排除在水中。这超过了文献中报道的大多数 GO 脱盐膜的性能。因此，本研究为基于所提出的纳米通道受限电荷排斥机制的离子排斥纳米通道膜的可行开发提供了有用的信息。
