Recent Advances in Graphene Oxide Membranes for Nanofiltration

Advanced membrane separation technology plays an important role in achieving excellent water treatment, which can help solve the freshwater crisis. However, there remains a trade-off between membrane permeability and selectivity. An emerging candidate to address this issue is graphene oxide (GO), a two-dimensional (2D) laminated graphene derivative with abundant oxygen functional groups. Furthermore, the transport channels of GO-based membranes can be artificially modified and manipulated, exhibiting great promise for GO in the field of water purification and molecular separation. This review comprehensively summarizes the research advances on 2D GO-based membranes for high-performance nanofiltration (NF). It begins with an elaboration on the preparation methods of GO-based membranes, followed by a detailed summary of the chemical modification and physical manipulation of transport channels. Then we reviewed the current research progress of theoretical calculation and molecular dynamics simulation. Also, the high NF performance of GO-based membranes is presented. Finally, the remaining challenges and future prospects in order to develop advances in membrane technology are provided.