Multilayer Nanoporous Graphene Membranes for Water Desalination

While single-layer nanoporous graphene (NPG) has shown promise as a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination membrane, multilayer graphene membranes can be synthesized more economically than the single-layer material. In this work, we build upon the knowledge gained to date toward single-layer graphene to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cohen-Tanugi, David, Lin, Li-Chiang, Grossman, Jeffrey C.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Chemical Society (ACS) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106607
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1281-2359
Description
Summary:While single-layer nanoporous graphene (NPG) has shown promise as a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination membrane, multilayer graphene membranes can be synthesized more economically than the single-layer material. In this work, we build upon the knowledge gained to date toward single-layer graphene to explore how multilayer NPG might serve as a RO membrane in water desalination using classical molecular dynamic simulations. We show that, while multilayer NPG exhibits similarly promising desalination properties to single-layer membranes, their separation performance can be designed by manipulating various configurational variables in the multilayer case. This work establishes an atomic-level understanding of the effects of additional NPG layers, layer separation, and pore alignment on desalination performance, providing useful guidelines for the design of multilayer NPG membranes.