1. Electrochemical-repaired porous graphene membranes for precise ion-ion separation.
- Author
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Zhou, Zongyao, Zhao, Kangning, Chi, Heng-Yu, Shen, Yueqing, Song, Shuqing, Hsu, Kuang-Jung, Chevalier, Mojtaba, Shi, Wenxiong, and Agrawal, Kumar Varoon
- Subjects
GRAPHENE ,PORE size distribution ,CONJUGATED polymers ,COMPOSITE membranes (Chemistry) ,MAGNESIUM ,ION-permeable membranes - Abstract
The preparation of atom-thick porous lattice hosting Å-scale pores is attractive to achieve a large ion-ion selectivity in combination with a large ion flux. Graphene film is an ideal selective layer for this if high-precision pores can be incorporated, however, it is challenging to avoid larger non-selective pores at the tail-end of the pore size distribution which reduces ion-ion selectivity. Herein, we develop a strategy to overcome this challenge using an electrochemical repair strategy that successfully masks larger pores in large-area graphene. 10-nm-thick electropolymerized conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) layer is successfully deposited on graphene, thanks to a strong π-π interaction in these two materials. While the CMP layer itself is not selective, it effectively masks graphene pores, leading to a large Li
+ /Mg2+ selectivity from zero-dimensional pores reaching 300 with a high Li+ ion permeation rate surpassing the performance of reported materials for ion-ion separation. Overall, this scalable repair strategy enables the fabrication of monolayer graphene membranes with customizable pore sizes, limiting the contribution of nonselective pores, and offering graphene membranes a versatile platform for a broad spectrum of challenging separations. The preparation of atom-thick lattices with Å-scale pores is desirable for achieving ion selectivity and high ion flux. Here authors present a cm-scale membrane made of atom-thick graphene film hosting zero-dimensional pores spanning only a few Å, repaired using an in situ electrochemical strategy, yielding high Li+ /Mg2+ separation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2024
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