Stable porous graphene oxide membranes enabled by confined growth of 2D MOF nanosheets for high-performance desalination
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Zhai, M
Moghadam, F
Wang, G
Othman, MHD
Li, K
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) membranes hold significant promise for this application but are limited by structural instability in aqueous environments. This study introduces a composite membrane based on porous graphene oxide (PGO) with two-dimensional copper 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (CuBDC) nanosheets grown in-situ. The confined growth of CuBDC within the PGO laminar structure, via strong coordination between Cu²⁺ ions and oxygen-containing groups on PGO, not only stabilizes the PGO laminar structure but also induces NaCl rejection due to the appropriate pore size of the CuBDC. The resulting composite membrane demonstrated a high-water flux of 124 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ in conventional pervaporation and 89 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ in low-energy water carrier pervaporation, with NaCl rejection consistently above 99.9%. Techno-economic analysis reveals that desalination using the fabricated membrane in a water‒carrier pervaporation process results in a remarkably low annual expenditure. Overall, this study offers a promising strategy for stabilizing PGO membranes with excellent selectivity, paving the way for more energy-efficient desalination technologies.
Date Issued
2026-05-15
Date Acceptance
2026-04-09
Citation
Science Advances, 2026, 12 (20)
ISSN
2375-2548
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Journal / Book Title
Science Advances
Volume
12
Issue
20
Copyright Statement
© 2026 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
eaee2550
Date Publish Online
2026-05-15