Abstract
Graphene-based membranes demonstrating ultrafast water transport, precise molecular sieving of gas and solvated molecules shows great promise as novel separation platforms; however, scale-up of these membranes to large-areas remains an unresolved problem. Here we demonstrate that the discotic nematic phase of graphene oxide (GO) can be shear aligned to form highly ordered, continuous, thin films of multi-layered GO on a support membrane by an industrially adaptable method to produce large-area membranes (13 × 14 cm2) in < 5 s. Pressure driven transport data demonstrate high retention (> 90%) for charged and uncharged organic probe molecules with a hydrated radius above 5 Å as well as modest (30–40%) retention of monovalent and divalent salts. The highly ordered graphene sheets in the plane of the membrane make organized channels and enhance the permeability (71±5 l m−2 hr−1 bar−1 for 150±15 nm thick membranes).
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-7-2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10891
Funding Information
We acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council through an ARC Discovery (DP 110100082), ARC Linkage (LP 140100959) grant and also partial support from University of Kentucky NSF EPSCoR grant.
Repository Citation
Akbari, Abozar; Sheath, Phillip; Martin, Samuel T.; Shinde, Dhanraj B.; Shaibani, Mahdokht; Banerjee, Parama Chakraborty; Tkacz, Rachel; Bhattacharyya, Dibakar; and Majumder, Mainak, "Large-Area Graphene-Based Nanofiltration Membranes by Shear Alignment of Discotic Nematic Liquid Crystals of Graphene Oxide" (2016). Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications. 19.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cme_facpub/19
Supplementary Information: Supplementary Figures 1-7, Supplementary Tables 1-4, Supplementary Notes 1-2 and Supplementary References.
ncomms10891-s2.mov (4811 kB)
Supplementary Movie 1: Large-scale production of graphene based membrane
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Nature Communications, v. 7, article no. 10891, p. 1-12.
© The Author(s) 2017
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