Liu, Yanan;
Coppens, Marc‐Olivier;
(2022)
Cell Membrane‐Inspired Graphene Nanomesh Membrane for Fast Separation of Oil‐in‐Water Emulsions.
Advanced Functional Materials
, Article 2200199. 10.1002/adfm.202200199.
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Abstract
Graphene exhibits fascinating prospects for preparing high-performance membranes with fast water transport, due to its low friction with water and extreme thinness. However, for graphene-assembled membranes, each molecule passing through the membrane should bypass many graphene sheets, which lengthens the molecular pathways and increases the mass transfer resistance. Herein, a graphene nanomesh (GNM) membrane is fabricated that is inspired by cell membranes, including aquaporins with their hydrophilic gate for selective transport and hydrophobic channel for low friction with water, thus resulting in fast water transport, as well as hydrophilic polymer brushes on the membrane surface for fouling resistance. GNM is synthesized by etching nanopores on graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to significantly shorten the water transport channels, whereas the hydrophobic graphene sheets lead to low water friction; in combination, ultra-fast, selective water flux is achieved. Also, hydrophilic polymer chitosan is utilized to modify GNM to construct a hydration layer, which suppresses foulants from touching the membrane surface. Accordingly, the permeance of the cell membrane-inspired graphene nanomesh membrane reaches almost 4000 L m–2 h–1 bar–1, which is about 260 times the permeance in a GO membrane, and the membranes show superior antifouling properties for separating various surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cell Membrane‐Inspired Graphene Nanomesh Membrane for Fast Separation of Oil‐in‐Water Emulsions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/adfm.202200199 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202200199 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | nature-inspired, graphene nanomeshes, water treatment, antifouling, oil/water separation |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10148165 |
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