Highly Efficient Arginine Intercalated Graphene Oxide Composite Membranes for Water Desalination

Graphene oxide-based composite membranes have received enormous attention for highly efficient water desalination. Herein, we prepare arginine/graphene oxide (Arg/GO) composite membranes by surface functionalizing GO nanosheets with arginine amino acid. Arginine has a unique combination of hydroxyl and amino functional groups that cross-link GO nanosheets through hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. The as-prepared Arg@GO composite membranes with different thicknesses are used to separate the salt and dye molecules. The 900-nm-thick Arg@GO composite membrane shows high rejection of 98% for NaCl and 99.8% for MgCl2, Ni(NO3)(2), and Pb(NO3)(2) with good water permeance. Such a membrane also shows a high separation efficiency (100%) for methylene blue, rhodamine B, and Evans blue dyes. At the same time, the ultrathin Arg@GO composite membrane (220 +/- 10 nm) exhibits high water permeance of up to 2100 +/- 10 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1). Furthermore, the 900-nm-thick Arg@GO composite membrane is stable in an aqueous environment for 40 days with significantly less swelling. Therefore, these membranes can be utilized in future desalination and separation applications.