Chapter 14 - Transport Mechanism and Modeling of Microporous Graphene Membranes

Abstract

Presently, in day-to-day separation processes, there are many observations that let us understand the relationship between the flows of any species; it may be heat, matter, or charge of a particular force driving that flow. Therefore, mass flows from the higher concentration to the lower concentration, the concentration difference being the driving force. In this case, membrane-based separation technology has attracted great interest in many separation fields due to its advantages of easy operation, energy-efficiency, easy scale-up, and environmental friendliness. The development of novel membrane materials and membrane structures is in urgent demand to promote membrane-based separation technology. Graphene-based membranes, as an emerging star of nano-building membranes, have showed great potential in the membrane-based separation field. In recent years, various types of graphene membranes have indicted high potentials for both gas and liquid separation. Therefore, this chapter first discusses progresses in graphene-based membranes and the performance of various graphene membranes, followed by evaluation of transport mechanisms of various graphene membranes in separation processes. Consequently, the application of graphene membranes will be studied from a modeling point of view. Hence, this chapter hopefully provides a new avenue for innovative developments of graphene-based membranes in various applications, with regard to theoretical analyses.