Tunable Interlayer‐Spacing Graphene Oxide Membrane: Efficient Osmotic Energy Conversion Toward Metal Recovery
2D material membranes show promise in osmotic energy (OE) conversion and separation technologies. However, low ion flux and swelling limit their applications. Herein, a polydopamine-crosslinked graphene oxide membrane (PDA@GO) with tunable interlayer spacing is developed to address these challenges. PDA expands the interlayer spacing, optimizes Debye length matching, and reduces ion transport barriers. Compared to pristine GO membranes, PDA@GO membranes achieve a 369% higher ion flux and a power density of 10.06 W m<sup>-2</sup> under a 500-fold NaCl gradient. Besides, PDA@GO membranes show excellent anti-swelling stability in aqueous solution up to 60 days. Furthermore, integrating green chemistry principles, PDA@GO enables dual energy-resource utilization, successfully recovering copper ions from wastewater via OE. This work highlights the potential of 2D membrane systems in high-efficiency energy conversion and sustainable wastewater treatment.
Authors
- Yu Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9981-2823)
- Fan Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7705-4638)
- Yonghuan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6951-5341)
- Weiqi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9010-3980)
- Xiuying Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5625-7591)
- Defang Ding
- Fengyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-6111)
Institutions
- Jinan University (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (CN)
- Zhengzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-07-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202504362
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Membrane Separation Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.82
Funders
- Natural Science Foundation of Shenzhen City
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province
- National Key Research and Development Program of China