Highly Permeable Sulfonated Graphene-Based Composite Membranes for Electrochemically Enhanced Nanofiltration

A sulfophenyl-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (SrGO) membrane is prepared. The SrGO membranes have a high charge density in water and could provide many atomically smooth nanochannels, because of their strong ionized-SO(3)H groups and low oxygen content. Therefore, the SrGO membranes have an excellent performance in terms of high permeance and high rejection ability. The permeance of SrGO membranes could be up to 118.2 L m(−2) h(−1) bar(−1), which is 7.6 times higher than that of GO membrane (15.5 L m(−2) h(−1) bar(−1)). Benefiting from their good electrical conductivity, the SrGO membranes could also function as an electrode and demonstrate a significantly increased rejection toward negatively charged molecules and positively charged heavy metal ions such as Cu(2+), Cr(3+) and Cd(2+), if given an appropriate negative potential. The rejection ratios of these metal ions can be increased from <20% at 0 V to >99% at 2.0 V. This is attributed to the enhanced electrostatic repulsion between the SrGO membrane and the like-charged molecules, and the increased electrostatic adsorption and electrochemical reduction in these heavy metal ions on the membranes. This study is expected to contribute to efficient water treatment and the advance of graphene-based membranes.