Freestanding bacterial cellulose-graphene oxide composite membranes with high mechanical strength for selective ion permeation.

ABSTRACT: Graphene oxide (GO) based membranes have been widely applied in molecular separation based on the size exclusion effect of the nanochannels formed by stacked GO sheets. However, it's still a challenge to prepare a freestanding GO-based membrane with high mechanical strength and structural stability which is prerequisite for separation application in aqueous solution. Here, a freestanding composite membrane based on bacterial cellulose (BC) and GO is designed and prepared. BC network provides a porous skeleton to spread GO sheets and uniformly incorporates into the GO layers, which endows the BC?+?GO composite membrane with well water-stability, excellent tensile strength, as well as improved toughness, guaranteeing its separation applicability in water environment. The resulting BC?+?GO membrane exhibits obviously discrepant permeation properties for different inorganic/organic ions with different size, and in particular, it can quickly separate ions in nano-scale from angstrom-scale. Therefore, this novel composite membrane is considered to be a promising candidate in the applications of water purification, food industry, biomedicine, and pharmaceutical and fuel separation.

SUBMITTER: Fang Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5018816 | biostudies-other | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other