Multi‐assembled nanofiltration membranes with excellent separation and catalytic performance

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUNDAccording to the characteristics of various nanomaterials, assembling these nanomaterials is an effective way to control the structure and properties of nanocomposites.RESULTSIn this work, nanofiltration membranes (NM) were prepared by assembling several nanomaterials that have excellent separation and catalytic properties. SiO2 nanoparticles were employed to optimize the water nanochannels between graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to fabricate GO/SiO2 NM, whose water flux was 73.2 L m−2 h−1 and the rejection ratio was 99.1%. The combination of high‐conductivity hydroxylated graphene (G‐OH) with flake NiCo‐BDC (BDC refers to deprotonated terephthalic acid) ultra‐thin metal organic framework (UMOF) to obtain UMOF&G‐OH could improve the catalytic performance of the UMOF by about 23.5%. In order to realize the synchronous catalysis and separation performance of nanofiltration membrane, UMOF&G‐OH was reassembled with GO and SiO2. The pure water flux of (UMOF&G‐OH)/GO/SiO2 nanofiltration membrane was 95.8 L m−2 h−1 and the rejection ratio was 99.1%. TiO2 nanoparticles were added to the membrane to regulate the distance between the flake, and the selective permeation of the composite membrane was further improved to 99.9%; the pure water flux reached 92.6 L m−2 h−1.CONCLUSIONThe introduction of G‐OH would be beneficial in improving the migration and separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron holes, and effectively improve the catalytic performance of the semiconductor catalyst. Through the assembly of a variety of nanoparticles and lamellar materials, the water nanochannel could be accurately controlled and the catalytic performance of the membrane could be given, so as to obtain a nanofiltration membrane with high water flux and high rejection ratio. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.