Kinetic study of water transport in layered graphene oxide membranes

ABSTRACT

Layered graphene oxide (GO) membranes are considered promising separation membranes because of their lamellar structure, strong mechanical strength and strong hydrophilic properties. However, there are a limited number of studies on the mechanism of water transport through a layered GO membrane. In this paper, by using a self-synthesized layered GO membrane, we developed and validated the first dynamic equation to describe water transport through a layered GO membrane. The results showed that the relationship between membrane flux and GO loading is an exponential function and that the water flux decreases with increasing GO loading. Then, the dynamic equation was applied to previously reported layered GO membranes to further verify its applicability. This kinetic study on layered GO membranes provides insight into the development of high-performance membranes with high permeability and selectivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Layered GO membrane
• water treatment
• water transport dynamics

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20170249) and the Natural Science Fund for Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. 17KJB610012, Grant No. 18KJA610003). We also thank Prof. Xiwang Zhang (Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University) for helping to improve the manuscript. Xueyang Zhang especially thanks the Science and Technology Plan Projects of Xuzhou City (Grant No. KC18150).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK20170249];the Science and Technology Plan Projects of Xuzhou City [KC18150];the Natural Science Fund for Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province [17KJB610012, 18KJA610003].