Name: FaridaTania

ID : A10703025

Novel graphene derivative composite membranes for solvent dehydration

Speaker: Prof. Wei-Song Hung

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The world water crisis, our bodies are as much as 60% water all living things contain it,
and like us depend upon it for survival, although 70% of the earth is covered with water, a
staggering number of the world’s poor lack even the most basic sanitation access to clean water.
97.5% of the water on earth is saltwater, 1,5% is frozen in glaciers and ice caps, only 1% is fresh
water that needs to be enough for everyone for over 7 billion of us, one out of every eight people
on earth search every-day for clean water, one in six has no access to toilet.

Figure 1 Water Percentage on earth (source:http://savethewater.org/education-resources/water-facts/)

At the same time, increasing contamination of water supplies from pesticides, fertilizers,
hormones, pharmaceuticals, and shale gas extraction is a serious problem that threatens health. A
lack of access to water supplies has the potential to trigger conflict, both within the United States
and around the world, yet 1.4 billion people live without clean drinking water. To help solve these
problems, materials scientists and chemical engineers are working to develop inexpensive,
scalable, and sustainable methods to harvest and purify water, for example with new membranes
that can filter contaminants from the water.To achieve this goal, fouling-resistant membranes
with tailored surface properties are greatly required. In fact, there is a need for membrane
materials with surface chemistries that inhibit the adhesion of diverse foulants, while preserving
the high permeability and selectivity necessary for seawater desalination. Graphene materials
can have a vital role in this aspect due to their biofouling resistance, hydrophilicity, thinness,
functionality and tunable small pore size. Therefore, from this point of view, graphene
membranes are promising candidates for next-generation seawater desalination systems.
 Figure [2]. Ilustrated grapheme material (source: https://www.quora.com/What-
is-so-special-about-graphene)

Graphene is a two-dimensional (2D) 1-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon

atoms. The first synthesis of graphene, using scotch tape and a piece of graphite, dates back to
2004. This material shows amazing physical, mechanical, thermal and optical properties, which
have been highlighted in most areas of science and engineering. The sp2 bonds and the involved
electron configuration are the main reasons for the ultra-high mechanical strength and elasticity,
tunable electronic band gap, excellent thermal (5300 W mK −1) and electrical conductivity
(2000 S cm−1) and room-temperature Hall effect of graphene. Its hardness is over 30 times
higher than that of diamond and 200 times higher than that of steel.Regarding water separation,
graphene possesses an atomic thickness, assuring its high fluid permeability (several -fold
higher than that of most commercial NF membranes) and thus energy/cost efficiency. In
addition, there is good potential for size-selective transport through the nanopores of a highly
robust graphene layer or 2D nanochannels between adjacent stacked graphene sheets. The
fabrication of graphene-based membranes for desalination is also straightforward.

Graphene can be used for the construction of desalination membranes in various forms, such as
pristine graphene, GO and reduced GO (rGO) [3]. Pristine graphene is a single 2D layer of
carbon atoms organized in a hexagonal pattern. Layered oxygenated graphene sheets, that is,
those including oxygen functional groups, such as epoxides, carboxyls, hydroxyls and alcohols,
on their basal planes and edges, are called GO. GO is made via oxidation of natural graphite
flakes by using strong oxidants, such as KMnO 4, KClO3 or NaNO2, along with a strong acid,
for example, concentrated sulfuric acid or nitric acid. Subsequently, single GO sheets can be
exfoliated by ultrasonication. A GO sheet is mainly composed of pristine (16%) and oxidized
domains (82%) with a negligible percentage of holes (2%). In this structure, the isolated pristine
domains are confined by the continuous oxidized domains. Through reduction processes, such
as chemical reduction, electro-reduction, thermal annealing, flash reduction and enzymatic
reduction, GO is converted to rGO with some residual oxygen and structural defects. [Graphene
membranes for water desalination Shahin Homaeigohar1 and Mady Elbahri1,2]
 Figure [3]. Most common derivatives of graphite (source:researchgate)

Modified graphene oxide membrane can effectively change the surface properties of graphene
oxide, introduce the new functional groups and change the distance between graphene sheets. The
modified graphene film is used in the fields of water purification, pervaporation and desalination.
Lou et al. used dip coating method with ceramic as the support base film, the preparation of silane
modified graphene film. Silane modification improves the adhesion between the graphene and the
ceramic base film, and the hydrophilicity of the membrane is improved. Gao et al. prepared an
ultra-thin modified graphene oxide membrane by filtration. Sodium membrane flux is very large,
and for the dye has a good retention effect, for the salt ion, the retention rate is 20% to 60%.
[Yongchen Liu 2017 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 94 012060; Application of graphene oxide in water treatment]
A single layer of graphene atoms can act as a perfect barrier and has the potential to open
up vast new markets and revolutionise countless industrial processes. The graphene oxide
membrane, the modified graphene oxide membrane and the oxidized graphene hybrid membrane
have the advantages of simple preparation process and good separation performance, it has great
potential in the field of water treatment. In the view of the ion transport principle in graphene
membrane is not yet clear, and it needs a deep understand of the mechanism when being applied
to desalination, sodium filtration, pervaporation and other fields. At the same time, for the new
separation membrane of enriched graphene group, how to improve the strength of the separation
membrane and put it into practical application, is an urgent problem to be solved.