Development of metal oxide nanosheet membranes: separation performance in water and organic solvent

摘要

Membrane separation is an advanced technology for solving environmental and energy issues. Nanomaterials for membranes have been extensively studied to overcome the limitations of conventional polymeric or inorganic membrane materials. Two dimensional (2D) nanosheet membranes have opened up a new avenue for fabricating size-selective molecular separation membranes, benefiting from their unique atomic thickness with micrometer lateral dimensions. Laminar nanosheet membranes are fonned by assembling single molecular sheets into thin membranes, and contain 2D nanochannels between the stacked sheets that allow water to pass through whilst rejecting unwanted solutes (Fig.l)1), However, only a narrow range of nanosheet materials, such as graphene oxide (GO) and transition metal dichalcogenides, have been studied. Metal oxide nanosheets offer attractive surface and catalytic properties. Therefore, they represent promising materials for potentially high-flmctional membranes for liquid separation.