Effect of Microstructure of Graphene Oxide Fabricated Composite Membranes on Alcohol Dehydration

Abstract:

We utilized pressure-, vacuum-, and evaporation-assisted self-assembly techniques through which graphene oxide (GO) was deposited on modified polyacrylonitrile (mPAN). The fabricated composite GO/mPAN membranes were applied to dehydrate 1-butanol mixtures by pervaporation. Varying driving forces in the self-assembly techniques induced different GO assembly layer microstructures. XRD results indicated that the GO layer d-spacing varied from 8.3 Å to 11.5 Å. The self-assembly technique with evaporation resulted in a heterogeneous GO layer with loop structures; this layer was shown to be hydrophobic, in contrast to the hydrophilic layer formed from the other two techniques. From the pressure-assisted technique, the composite membrane exhibited exceptional pervaporation performance at 30 °C: concentration of water at the permeate side = 99.6 wt% and permeation flux = 2.54 kg m-2 h-1. This excellent separation performance stemmed from the dense, highly ordered laminate structure of GO.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 1051)
• Pages: 278-282
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1051.278
• Online since: October 2014
• Authors: Wei Song Hung*, Kueir Rarn Lee, Juin Yih Lai
• Keywords: Composite Membranes, Graphene Oxide, Pervaporation

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