Sacrificial GO-BD interlayer for high performance ceramic ultrafiltration membrane

Abstract

As a new two-dimensional material, graphene oxide (GO) has been widely used in the preparation of microporous ceramic membranes. In this work, we report a facile GO and borax decahydrated (GO-BD) coating intermediate sacrificial layer by co-sintering process to prepare defect-free, ultrathin ceramic membranes. GO and BD were successfully crosslinked, which effectively blocked the permeation of membrane particles. Based on the GO-BD (GB) layer, a crack-free film layer with boehmite sol as the main components is prepared. The experiment showed that 0.8Al2O3/0.2 C3H8O3 was the film solution ratio that suited best. Meanwhile, 1050 °C is the optimal sintering temperature. Additionally, the prepared porous ultrathin membrane exhibited excellent permeability. The water flux and rejection (for methyl blue) of the ultrafiltration membrane (UM) were 720 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and 91.6% respectively, with a layer thickness of only 720 nm at the sintering temperature of 1050 °C. The method proposed in this work can effectively reduce the mass transfer resistance and sintering cost, and has great potential in the water treatment field.