Imperial College London
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Emeritus ProfessorNigelGraham

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Senior Research Investigator
 
 
 
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Contact

 

n.graham Website

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Judith Barritt +44 (0)20 7594 5967

 
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Location

 

406Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Graham:2017:2053-1583/aa814c,
author = {Graham, NJD and Yu, W and Yu, T},
doi = {2053-1583/aa814c},
journal = {2D Materials},
pages = {1--14},
title = {Development of a stable cation modified graphene oxide membrane for water treatment},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/aa814c},
volume = {4},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Membranes prepared from layers of graphene oxide (GO) offer substantial advantages over conventional materials for water treatment (e.g. greater flux), but the stability of GO membranes in water has not been achieved until now. In this study the behavior of GO membranes prepared with different quantities and species of cations has been investigated to establish the feasibility of their application in water treatment. A range of cation-modified GO membranes were prepared and exposed to aqueous solutions containing specific chemical constituents. In pure water, unmodified and Na-modified GO membranes were highly unstable, while GO membranes modified with multivalent cations were stable provided there were sufficient quantities of cations present; their relative capability to achieve GO stability was as follows: Al3+  >  Ca2+  >  Mg2+  >  Na+. It is believed that the mechanism of cross-linking, and membrane stability, is via metal-carboxylate chelates and cation-graphite surface interactions (cation-π interaction), and that the latter appears to increase with increasing cation valency. The instability of cation (Ca or Al)-modified GO membranes by NaCl solutions during permeation occurred as Na+ exchanged with the incorporated multivalent cations, but a high content of Al3+ in the GO membrane impeded Al3+/Na+ exchange and thus retained membrane stability. In solutions containing biopolymers representative of surface waters or seawater (protein and polysaccharide solutions), Ca-GO membranes (even with high Ca2+ content) were not stable, while Al-GO membranes were stable if the Al3+ content was sufficiently high; Al-formed membranes also had a greater flux than Ca-GO membranes.
AU  - Graham,NJD
AU  - Yu,W
AU  - Yu,T
DO  - 2053-1583/aa814c
EP  - 14
PY  - 2017///
SN  - 2053-1583
SP  - 1
TI  - Development of a stable cation modified graphene oxide membrane for water treatment
T2  - 2D Materials
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/aa814c
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2053-1583/aa814c
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/50189
VL  - 4
ER  -
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