Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397

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Desalination

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/desal

Recent advances in utilization of graphene for filtration and desalination

of water: A review
Arash Aghigh a, Vahid Alizadeh a, H.Y. Wong a, Md. Shabiul Islam b,c, Nowshad Amin c, Mukter Zaman a,⁎
a
Faculty of Engineering (FOE), Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Malaysia
b
Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), UKM, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
c
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

H I G H L I G H T S

• Graphene shows good potential for water desalination and filtration systems.
• NG membranes show high salt rejection and feasibility in RO applications.
• CDI is heavily material dependent but feasible in water desalination.
• GO sieving is a novel method and needs further improvement for desalination.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Water as a basic necessity is an influential factor in our everyday lives but water pollution, urbanization, and huge
Received 15 December 2014 population growth has led humankind to the brink of water resource scarcity. To address this issue, water filtra-
Received in revised form 13 March 2015 tion as well as desalination got enormous interest by the research community. Recently graphene, a new two
Accepted 14 March 2015
dimensional material with exceptional capabilities and characteristics, has become apposite in the field of
Available online 20 March 2015
water filtration and desalination. This paper reviews the recent progress in Graphene research for water desali-
Keywords:
nation using novel methods such as Nanoporous Graphene (NG) sheets as well as Capacitive Deionization (CDI)
Graphene method. Among which most promising uniform NG sheets can be used for water filtration and desalination at a
Water desalination removal efficiency of 33–100% depending on the pore size as well as the applied pressure [1] and has a water flow
Nanoporous graphene rate of 10–100 L/cm2/day/MPa [1] and by adjusting the pore size, different mineral filtrations can take place [1].
CDI The main drawback which limits the widespread utilization of NG is the mechanical stability of NG sheets as the
Nanopores pore number increases since water permeability is directly proportional to the number of pores, pore distribution
RGO as well as the mass production of graphene sheets which has not been solved [1,2]. Apart from this, in CDI
Graphene oxide
method, filtration is done by applying a certain potential difference between arrays of paired electrodes. The
GO sieve
mentioned CDI method has moderate removal efficiency but has higher energy efficiency compared to the
reverse osmosis method due to minimal energy requirement of only 0.1–2.03 kWh/m3 [3]. Graphene oxide
based desalination is another emerging desalination method which is gaining popularity because of its ease of
fabrication, industry scale production, and strong mechanical stability [4,5]. It uses the “ion sponging” effect
and can block hydrated ions with a radius greater than 4.5 A°. But still this method should be further improved
as small seawater salts are able to pass from the GO sieve [6,7].
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
1.1. Graphene: characteristics, synthesis and opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
1.2. Reduced graphene oxide fabrication process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
2. Pyridine–thermal preparation of graphene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
3. Water filtration and desalination using nanoporous graphene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
4. Capacitive deionization using graphene based electrodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mukter@mmu.edu.my (M. Zaman).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2015.03.024
0011-9164/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
390 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397
5. Desalination application using graphene oxide membranes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
Water has always been one of the basic needs of human beings. With
the rapid growth of the population, consumable water has become very
scarce and is expected to worsen between now and 2040, thus, novel
solutions must be implemented. The use of underground and sea water
is limited due to the contamination and the huge cost for contamination
removal, salt and unwanted particle separation [8,9]. It is necessary to
deploy low cost water purification techniques to purify contaminated
water as well as desalination for sea water. Many methods have been im-
plemented for water treatment such as ion exchange, reverse osmosis
and distillation [9]. The widespread utilization of these methods is limited
due to self-contamination [9], huge power requirements [9], and utiliza-
tion of intense resources [9] and not being economically viable. As an
example, reverse osmosis is used among wealthy countries such as
Saudi Arabia and Israel which have the necessary resource for deploying
such plants when confronted with water shortage [10]. This process was
implemented in the 1990s to replace multistage flash distillation and
multiple-effect distillation due to their high power consumption [1,11]
requirements. In RO, a polymer membrane is used in which seawater is
pressurized from one side of the membrane and because of the structural
gaps of the membrane, only water will be able to pass through and hy-
drated ions such as sodium and chloride ions will be filtered and will
not be able to pass [12]. In addition, this method can produce an average
of 250 million gallons of fresh water per day [13]. But still as an example,
reverse osmosis method was not successful in Almeria—a Spanish prov-
ince due to high consumption of electricity [14]. Moreover the membrane
filter technology can be summarized in the table below.
So the problem that needs to be addressed is to find cost and power
efficient processes for water purification and desalination, eliminate
self-contamination and more importantly should be industrially appli-
cable. As such, nanotechnology has opened a window of opportunity
for researching on water purification and improving the environment
by studying on a selection of new materials [16]. But nowadays, many
of these materials have proven to be inefficient in this application. For
example, low salt rejection is a serious problem in carbon nanotube
based membranes and in addition high-aligned and high-density CNT
arrays are very difficult to produce [17,18]. In addition, another material
that was considered but was not successful was Zeolite for its compara-
tively low water permeability [19] and for comparison purposes, the salt
rejection vs. water permeability of graphene is presented in Fig. 1.
As a consequence, graphene has been investigated and identified as
a new material for certain characteristics and properties suitable for the
purpose of water purification. Besides, graphene is very light and also
can withstand high water pressure which makes it advantageous to
other nanofiltration materials [21]. This paper will summarize recent
research works for water purification and desalination using graphene
and will provide a detailed investigative result in applied and appli-
cation perspectives which includes description of graphene, its char-
acteristics, fabrication, and characterization methods. In the next
part, graphene based water desalination methods namely NG as well
as graphene based CDI will be discussed in details and the possibilities
of graphene oxide sieves will also be briefly discussed and the paper
will end with summarizing of the reported and expected results and
findings for better clarification, comparison and benchmarking purpose.
1.1. Graphene: characteristics, synthesis and opportunities
Graphene is a new material which was first synthesized in 2004
using a scotch tape and a piece of graphite, although a single atomic
395
395
396
sheet of graphite was first defined as graphene in 1986 by Boehm
et al. [22]. Graphene has a honeycomb lattice structure and a carbon–
carbon bond length of 0.142 nm [23] and has many superiorities over
conventional materials, one of the most fascinating properties of
graphene is that it is only one atom thick and thus instead of being a
3D material, this material is only 2D. It has high thermal conductivity
(5300 W/mK) and electrical conductivity (2000 S/cm) and in addition,
it has the fastest electron mobility [24]. It is 30 times harder than dia-
monds and 200 times harder than steel [25,26]. Moreover, it also has in-
teresting optical properties and can absorb about 2.3% of white light
which makes it an excellent choice for the production of more efficient
solar cells [26]. With all of the mentioned advantages, there is a problem
with graphene and it is that a band gap is not present and thus it can
never be switched off and thus an engineered band gap needs to be im-
plemented so that it can be used in different applications [26]. Apart
from this, due to the defects introduced during the exfoliation time,
high quality graphene is hardly obtainable [27]. Despite these limita-
tions, graphene is considered suitable for lots of applications such
as transistor fabrication, super capacitors, improved batteries, solar
cells and water purification [28]. Graphene can be fabricated in both
bottom-up and top-down methods. The preparation of Graphene from
chemical reaction of organic and small molecules is called bottom-up
method. Epitaxial growth using silicon carbide, thermal CVD and
PECVD can be used to grow graphene on many substrates [24]. In
the top-down method, fine graphene with good yield can be produced
by using the following methods: chemical reduction, electrochemical
synthesis and chemical derivations [24]. Fig. 2 shows some of the
methods mentioned for fabricating graphene.
In addition, many other ways have also been developed for prepar-
ing graphene and by these fabrication methods, different characteristics
of the material can be modified and catered for specific needs and pur-
poses. For example, for obtaining graphene-polymer films with large-
area which are flat and single layered, Langmuir–Blodgett assembly is
used [30,31].
1.2. Reduced graphene oxide fabrication process
Since producing graphene is not an easy process, instead a substitu-
tion can be used which has a very similar structure to genuine graphene
and it is called the Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO). For creating RGO a
few steps should be taken, firstly graphite is oxidized and thus graphite
Fig. 1. Salt rejection vs. water permeability of different filtration methods [20].
 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397
(a)
Fig. 2. (a): Chemically converted graphene by reduction of graphene oxide [24]. (b): Low temperature and low pressure CVD growth of graphene on metals [29].
oxide can be formed. Afterwards it requires treating of graphite oxide
with hydrazine hydrate at 100° for 24 h. In the next step the RGO is
exposed to hydrogen plasma and a strong light which is very similar
to the xenon light. Next, the prepared RGO is heated in distilled water
and is combined with an expansion–reduction agent. In the last step
the RGO is heated to a high temperature degree and linear sweep
voltammetry is conducted [32].
2. Pyridine–thermal preparation of graphene
From the mentioned methods, reduction of graphene oxide has been
proven to be a more promising choice of fabrication in large-scale
Graphene fabrication since it has shown superiorities such as cost-
efficiency which is a necessity in the graphene fabrication industry.
Apart from its superiorities, this method is limited by the fact that it is
highly dependent on the choice of reduction agent being used. Many
reduction agents have been used but most of these agents have caused
problems such as toxicity or restacking of graphene which is highly
undesirable especially in desalination applications. One of the new
strategies that has been used to eliminate the mentioned problems
and has caused enhancements in capacitive deionization desalination
is the pyridine–thermal strategy which can be illustrated and summa-
rized in Fig. 3 [33] and characteristics of this novel fabrication process
will be summarized in the CDI section of this paper later on.
From all of the fabrication methods discussed in the previous
sections, for desalination purposes, pyridine–thermal preparation of
Fig. 3. Graphene fabrication using pyridine–thermal strategy [33].
391
(b)
Graphene is more preferable compared to more traditional methods
since it rectifies major problems in graphene fabrication such as toxicity
and restacking which makes this method an excellent candidate for
graphene based desalination purposes.
3. Water filtration and desalination using nanoporous graphene
This method is the novel method in water desalination and has been
studied in the research center in MIT University in the USA and it can be
used as a viable membrane for reverse osmosis method. Traditional
reverse osmosis membranes have low water permeability and thus
require higher operation power for the desalination process [34]. In
this new membrane, graphene is modified by creating nanopores on
the surface of the graphene. In this process, well-structured channels
of pores can facilitate the water flow and thus make the flow fast. In
addition, not only salt can be rejected using this method, but by modify-
ing the size of the pores, other materials, based on their molecular size
can be filtered as well. For rejecting ions and other solute molecules,
the pores use physical principals such as charge and hydrophobicity
[1]. The whole process of desalination can be seen in Fig. 4.
Graphene has many advantages over other membranes that are
used for the purpose of water desalination. The first and most important
advantage is that since it is one atom thick, its thickness can be
neglected. On the contrary to its negligible thickness, graphene has
high mechanical strength and these two attributes lead to low pressure
requirements and faster water transport [1,25,26].
392 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 4. (a) Nanoporous graphene water desalination [1,35], (b) nanopores with hydrophilic bonding [1,36], (c) graphene filter computer simulation [1,34], and (d) nanopores with
hydrophilic bondings (left) and functionalized nanopores on graphene (right) [1,36].

So the question that arises here is that how something that is harder
than diamond can be punctured. Two methods can be used to create the
nanopores required on the graphene so that water desalination can be
performed. In addition, the size of these pores must be very precise
and thus the puncturing process must be performed with extra care
and control. If the pore sizes are very small, the water molecules will
not be able to pass through the pores and thus desalination will not be
performed. If the pore sizes are too large, the salt molecules will be
able to pass through with the water molecules which are highly unde-
sirable. The first method that was mainly used for creating these pores
was electron beam exposure but nowadays, for the purpose of achieving
higher porosity as well as increasing the precision, chemical etching and
etc. is in use [1]. Recently, researchers have found an efficient way for
creating the required pores on the graphene sheets. In this process, a
gallium ion gun is used and this gun scans the graphene sheet from
left to right and from top to bottom and an unfocused beam of gallium
ion is shot at the graphene sheet causing the gallium ions to be scattered
on all of the Graphene sheet causing disruptions in the lattice of the
material and knocking off carbon atoms. Afterwards, the created defects
would be vulnerable to etching and thus, graphene is placed inside a
solution of acidic potassium permanganate which is also used for
unzipping carbon nanotubes. The amount of time that the graphene
sheet is immersed in the oxidizing solution controls the pores that are
created on the graphene sheet and the more time the graphene is
immersed in the solution the size of the pores will also become larger
[37,38]. The process can be seen in the Fig. 5.
In their research, the result of using such method was a single layer
graphene that contained five trillion 0.4 nm holes/cm [37]. But for

Fig. 5. (a–c) Gallium ion bombardment of graphene sheets and (d) etching with oxidizing solution [6].
 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397 393

(a)

(c)
(b)

Fig. 6. (a) Water molecule on the feed side vs. simulation time for different pressures (left), water flux vs. applied pressure (right) [34], (b) salt rejection vs. applied pressure and for
hydrogenated (upper line) and hydroxylated pore (bottom line), and (c) water permeability vs. open pore area for hydrogenated and hydroxylated pores [1].

desalination purposes, it is found through experimental analysis that
the maximum pore diameter should be approximately around 7 A° [1,
34]. In addition, further research should be conducted for the men-
tioned technique to be used in larger graphene filters [37]. After creating
the pores, some hydrophilic bonding at the pores to enhance the water
flux which goes through the pores is created. The reason behind this is
that a higher sum of hydrogen-bonding configuration will be available
inside the pores [1].
In their research Tanugi and Grossman demonstrated that this new
membrane for water purification was far greater than the traditional
reverse osmosis membranes due to its superior water permeability in
comparison with the best RO membranes presently in use. In addition,
it was found that the salt rejection was dependent on two elements:
pore size and pressure. It was shown that increasing the pore size and
the pressure will both degrade the salt rejection ability of the mem-
brane [1]. The graph for the results obtained can be seen in Fig. 6.
Another Allotrope of carbon can also be used in water desalination
and it is called graphyne. This membrane has not been fabricated yet,
but based on computer simulation results; its performance is compara-
ble with nanoporous graphene as presented in Table 2 below in which
the differences in removal efficiency as well as water flow rate for
both methods is presented. (See Table 1.)
The main problem for the NG membrane is that the water flow is
directly proportional to the numbers of pores on the graphene sheet
and by increasing the number of pores, the mechanical stability of the
membrane will decrease and also the pore distribution is another prob-
lem of this method as well as the mass production of Graphene sheets
which need to be addressed by extensive researching [1,2,40].
In addition, the mentioned problems are hoped to be rectified as the
commercialized version of this membrane has been patented to
Lockheed Martin and is named Perforene and as mentioned before, by
modifying the pore size, different mineral capturing is possible [41].
The company has also stated that the new membrane filters will be
500 times thinner and 99% more energy efficient than the best reverse
osmosis technology [15,42] and it is highly anticipated that by the in-
vestment of the company in this new membrane, the disadvantages of
the membrane will be rectified and negligible.
Although promising results have been obtained for NG membrane in
RO applications, but it is noteworthy that all of the obtained results are
simulation based and practical results have not yet been obtained for
this novel membrane. Further research and studies should be conducted
so that this method can be commercially available and feasible. In addi-
tion, the control and distribution of pores on the Graphene sheet as well
as the mass production of Graphene are two main concerns which re-
quire extensive study and further investigation to be resolved for this
method since salt rejection is heavily influenced by the pore size and
distribution and mass production of graphene is essential for real
world application of this method. So despite the favorable simulation
results, real world implementation of this method should be performed
so that the robustness of NG membranes can be truly tested.

Table 1
Membrane filter technology [15].

Filter type Symbol Pore size (μm) Operating pressure (psi) Types of materials removed

Microfilter MF 1.0–0.01 b30 Clay, bacteria, large viruses, suspended solids

Ultrafilter UF 0.01–0.001 20–100 Viruses, proteins, starches, colloids, silica, organics, dye, fat
Nanofilter NF 0.001–0.0001 50–300 Sugar, pesticides, herbicides, divalent anions
Reverse osmosis RO b0.0001 225–1000 Monovalent salts
394 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397
Table 2
Removal efficiency and water flow rate of nanoporous graphene and graphyne sheet.
Method Removal efficiency
Nanoporous graphene [1,34] 33–100%
Graphyne sheet [39] 80–100%
4. Capacitive deionization using graphene based electrodes
In this process, CDI is used for the purpose of water desalination. In
this method, Graphene is not used as the main filtering process and in
here it is only a part of the CDI and its nanocomposite is used as the elec-
trodes. In this process the main driving mechanism of the CDI for
removing ions is electrostatic adsorption [43]. CDI or electrosorption is
the process in which when a direct voltage through its electrodes is
applied, the ionic species will be adsorbed to the electrodes and it is
mainly used for desalination applications. If the external voltage is
reversed or shorted, this will cause the adsorbed ions to be released to
our solution again [9]. Fig. 7 graphically represents the CDI process.
The main water purification process in this method is highly
dependable on the materials that are used for CDI. The advantages
that can be named for this process are as follows: energy efficiency,
high removal efficiency, easy regeneration and low cost. As mentioned
before, the electrode is the most important part of the water purification
system and must have some specific characteristics which can be seen
below: large specific surface, good electrical conductivity and suitable
pore size [9]. For the preparation of the electrode, several steps must
be taken and different techniques must be applied. The first step is to
prepare the graphene and resol (RGO-RF) which was thoroughly
discussed previously. Next by using Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) for
the purpose of binding, desired electrode is fabricated and functional-
ized them into the capacitive deionization device for desalination appli-
cations [9].
The results of the experiments which was reported by Zhuo Wang
et al. shows that using RGO-RF has a better adsorption characteristics
of NaCl than using the conventional RGO. In addition, since a higher spe-
cific area is required, it was found that using Resol will enhance the spe-
cific surface. It was also shown that Langmuir adsorption is observed in
the CDI method [9]. In terms of efficiency, many studies have shown en-
ergy efficiencies ranging from 60–95% [45,46]. Moreover, composite
materials such as graphene/CNT, three-dimensional macroporous
graphene, etc. are also being extensively researched for desalination
purposes in this field because they provide good surface area and supe-
rior conductivity [47,48].
Apart from these materials, one of the main materials that has
shown promising results in the CDI application and has been proven
to be more desalination efficient than activated carbon is mesoporous
carbon. Compositing this material with carbon nanotube has shown
promising results in CDI due to its superior electrical conductivity as
(a)
Fig. 7. (a) Capacitive deionization process from salt water to desalinated water [44] and (b) capacitive deionization process using flow-through method [26].
Water flow rate L/cm2/day/MPa Remarks
10–100 Depends on pore size and applied pressure
13
well as desalination capacitance [49]. Another important factor that
should be taken into consideration when using mesoporous carbon is
its pore structure because electroadsorption which is the key principle
of CDI technology is affected by the pore size and thus suitable pore
size and structure are essential. Fig. 8 illustrates three fabricated pore
configurations for mesoporous carbon namely 2-D hexagonal, 3-D
cubic symmetry and 3-D bicontinuous [50].
It has been shown through experimentation that electroadsorption
in 3-D symmetry cubic configuration is superior compared to the two
other pore structures [50]. In addition, apart from mesoporous carbon,
many other materials can be used as electrodes for CDI applications
which are summarized in Table 3.
Moreover, besides the Batch method, Flow-through capacitor (FTC)
method is another popular method which is used in CDI technology.
CNTs have proven to be exceptional in this method due to their stability
and strength as well as their low resistivity. One of the main consider-
ations in this method is the BET surface area. Studies have shown that
BET surface area is reversely proportional to CNT nanotube diameters
and thus by decreasing the diameter, higher BET surface area can be
achieved which will lead to higher removal efficiency up to 95% [56].
Moreover, the surface texture of CNTs can be enhanced using the car-
bonization of hot-pressed CNTs in which will result in a removal effi-
ciency of more than 90% and also increases the specific capacitance
from 2.4 to 10.6 and decreases the equivalent resistance from 15.1 to
2.2 which in terms will lead to better CDI performance [57].
Like any other technology, CDI also suffers some drawbacks as well,
one is the requirement of a considerable external power source and the
other one is the brine solution disposal of the system [58]. CDI has
shown promising results in desalination applications and unlike NG
membranes which are still in the simulation stage, CDI has been tested
and implemented in various configurations. It is one of the most power
efficient methods which is available nowadays but it also experiences
major drawbacks such as heavy electrode material dependence as
well as self-contamination which require further investigation so that
a more efficient electrode material and configuration can be used with
this method which can rectify the mentioned problems.
Table 4 shows a summary of all the findings that have been stated in
this paper. From the table, it is clear that CDI has superiority over RO in
terms of Power requirement [3,59]. In addition, NG can be modified to
reject any contamination and NG is more energy efficient and has
higher salt rejection but it suffers from major drawbacks and that is
the complexity of controlling the pore size and pore distribution across
(b)
 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397 395

Fig. 8. (a) 2-D hexagonal, (b) 3-D symmetry cubic and (c) 3-D biocontinuous [50].

the graphene sheet and the mass production of graphene is not yet
tangible [1,2].
5. Desalination application using graphene oxide membranes
Graphene oxide is another membrane that has recently found a
place in desalination application. The difference between ordinary
graphene sheets and graphene oxide sheets is that graphene oxide
sheets are covered with hydroxyl molecules [6]. These materials are
popular because of their ease of fabrication, mechanical strength and
industrial scale production [4,5]. GO laminates can be stacked on each
other to form a single membrane that has millions of nanocapillaries
[6,7]. It was found that smaller ions can move through the membrane
very faster than the diffusion mechanism. It was like the nanocapillaries
act like strong vacuum cleaners that draw in smaller ions and this effect
was termed as “ion sponging” [6,7]. Moreover, interestingly, the ions
moved in the reverse direction of the osmosis-driven water. It should
also be noteworthy that ion charge does not have any influence on the
permeation rate and the only important factor which plays an impor-
tant role in the permeation rate is the hydrated radii of the species. It
was found in the research that hydrated ions with a radius higher
than 4.5 A° will be blocked using this method [62]. Still, this process is
not suitable for seawater desalination because the GO mesh should be
reduced from 9 A° to 6 A° to be able to filter the finest salts in the sea
water [6,62]. Fig. 9 shows the simulation results for a 9A graphene slit.
GO sieving is a novel method which is in its early stages of develop-
ment and require further research for optimization. This method is not
yet applicable for seawater desalination because the mesh size of the
GO sieve is not yet small enough so that it can be used to filter out
small seawater salt ions and the sieve requires further improvement
to be able to be applicable in desalination processes. On the other
hand, one of the major fortes of implementing this method is the mate-
rial of choice which makes GO sieving very cost efficient.
6. Conclusion
In this review, different characteristics of graphene which can be
implemented for water purification and desalination is investigated. It
was found that due to its high thermal and electrical conductivity as
well as hard structure, graphene is a nominal candidate for conducting
the process of water purification. In this paper firstly the properties
and capabilities of most novel membrane for desalination which is
nanoporous graphene [1] is reported. The advantages of this membrane
are as follows: it can be used in low pressures and it is more power

Table 3
Comparison between different electrode materials in batch mode operation.

Electrode material Flow rate Conductivity initial Voltage Conductivity final Operation hours
(mL/min) (μS/cm) (V) (μS/cm) (h)

Pristine mesoporous carbon/CNT [49] 25 93.5 1.2 b20 2

KOH activated mesoporous carbon/CNT [49] 25 93.5 1.2 b10 2
Pyridine–thermal graphene [33] 25 86.9 2 10.2 2
Graphene-coated hollow mesoporous carbon spheres [51] 25 68 1.6 15.8 2
Graphene/mesoporous carbon [52] 25 89.5 2 b10 1
Ordered mesoporous carbon/CNT [53] 25 93.5 1.2 b20 2
3-dimensional graphene [54] 30 60 1.2 b30 1.33
3-dimensional graphene-based hierarchically porous carbon [54] 30 60 1.2 b15 1.33
3-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon [55] 25 70 2 b10 1.33

Table 4
Comparison between water filtration methods.

Method Advantage Disadvantage Power Power Material

source requirement

Nanoporous Modifiable pore size, high salt rejection, low and high Mechanical stability decrease with number of pores, pore Yes Unknown Graphene
graphene pressure operation, power and cost efficient size control, mass production has not been reached
[1,34]
CDI [3,9] Energy efficient, low cost, moderate rate of removal, Material dependent, source causes contamination Yes 0.1–2.03 Reduced
regenerate able kWh/m3 graphene oxide,
etc.
RO [59–61] Good efficiency, various application, removal of many Membrane degradation, periodic replacement, high power Yes 3–8 Cellulose
contaminants requirement, high operation cost kWh/m3 acetate,
polyamide
396 A. Aghigh et al. / Desalination 365 (2015) 389–397
(a)
Fig. 9. (a) Sieving characteristic of GO with different materials, (b) molecular sieving simulation, and (c) GO sieve ion transport and different applications [6,63].
efficient and by modifying its pore size, the minerals that will pass
through it and the materials which will be filtered can be controlled.
The two main disadvantages of this method are that its mechanical
strength will be tested with applied force as the number of pores
increases and the other disadvantage is that the pore sizes on the
graphene sheet must be precise and controlling and manufacturing
these pore sizes are a very complex process and moreover, the mass
production of graphene sheets has not yet been realized [1,2,40]. For
CDI, RGO was used as the electrode and it had some great advantages
such as energy and high removal efficiency, easy regeneration and low
cost. But like any other method, it also has its disadvantages as it is
highly dependable on the materials and shorting or reversing the exter-
nal power source will cause contamination to be introduced in the
water again. Moreover, external power source requirement and brine
solution disposal are also disadvantageous as well [9,58]. In addition
water desalination through GO sieving was also discussed briefly and
this method has some great advantages such as easy fabrication and
good mechanical strength [4,5]. But still, further research should be con-
ducted for desalination applications as small seawater salt are able to
pass from the GO sieve and thus further improvement of the GO mesh
structure is required [6,62].
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