Hot-pressed polymer nanofiber supported graphene membrane for high-performance nanofiltration

摘要

Graphene oxide (GO) sheets can be readily surface-overlaid on hot-pressed electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofiber membrane to form a continuous and crack-free layer; upon thermal reduction at 150 degrees C for 12 h, the resulting reduced GO (rGO) layer can reject similar to 90% MgSO4 with high water flux (due to the size exclusion mechanism), making the prepared PANrGO membranes promising nanofiltration media for water purification. It is important to note that no delamination of GO/rGO sheet layers has been observed throughout this study. We highlight that a simple processing method (i.e., hot pressing) is critical for the successful preparation of 2D materials (e.g., GO/rGO) based membranes/media. It is envisioned that the reported study can benefit many groups working on various membrane applications of 2D materials; in other words, the hot-pressed electrospun nanofiber membranes could be generally utilized as an innovative type of platform to support various 2D sheets for different separation applications such as highly efficient and cost-effective removal of dissolved components (e.g., organic molecules) and even (hydrated) ions from water.