Two-Dimensional Materials Membrane and Adsorbent for Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "2D and Carbon Nanomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2023) | Viewed by 4812

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Interests: membrane and adsorption separation technology: novel adsorbents; novel membrane materials; novel photocatalysts; hybrid membranes; modification of membrane surface hydrophilicity and anti-pollution properties; collaborative repair of groundwater pollution; membrane separation in lithium extraction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene/graphene oxide (GO), graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4), boron nitride, MXene, 2D metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), 2D covalent organic frameworks (COFs), layered double hydroxides, etc., have provided new opportunities for the development and innovation of membrane separation technology and adsorption separation technology. Two-dimensional materials have unique physical and chemical properties and microstructures, which can be stacked and self-assembled to construct nanochannels with limited mass transfer, making the membrane separation process precise and controllable in the molecular and ionic scales. In addition, the large specific surface area and rich functional sites of 2D materials can increase the contact area and exhibit higher adsorption capacity after surface or structural modification. Both of these aspects can satisfy more wastewater treatment and other aspects of separation requirement. This Special Issue aims to collect the latest research progress, breakthroughs, challenges, and future research directions of different kinds of 2D material membranes and adsorbents for wastewater treatment. In addition, manuscripts on the preparation and modification methods, in situ characterization, mass transfer mechanism, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation/calculation, and 2D material membrane and adsorbents amplification technology and large-scale applications are also very welcome. For 2D materials membrane and adsorbents applications, this Special Issue covers the removal and purification of organic dyes, heavy metal ions, oils, salts, radioactive elements, antibiotics, and other small molecule pollutants from wastewater. 

Dr. Guangyong Zeng
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • two-dimensional materials
  • 2D material synthesis
  • membrane materials
  • membrane modification
  • adsorption separation
  • adsorbents
  • water reuse
  • wastewater treatment

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5070 KiB  
Article
Polycation-Intercalated MXene Membrane with Enhanced Permselective and Anti-Microbial Properties
by Jie Yang, Shilin Zhu and Hongli Zhang
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(21), 2885; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13212885 - 31 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1301
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial-based membranes feature attractive properties for molecular separation and transport, which exhibit huge potential in various chemical processes. However, the low permeability and bio-fouling of the MXene membrane in water treatment become huge obstacles to its practical application. Herein, a highly [...] Read more.
Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial-based membranes feature attractive properties for molecular separation and transport, which exhibit huge potential in various chemical processes. However, the low permeability and bio-fouling of the MXene membrane in water treatment become huge obstacles to its practical application. Herein, a highly permselective and anti-bacterial 2D nanofiltration membrane is fabricated by intercalating a polycation of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDA) into the Ti3C2Tx MXene laminar architecture through a facile and patternable electrostatic assembly strategy. As a result, the as-fabricated Ti3C2Tx/PDDA composite membrane exhibits higher water permeance up to 73.4 L m−2 h−1 with a rejection above 94.6% for MgCl2. The resultant membrane simultaneously possesses good resistance to swelling and long-term stability in water environments, even after 8 h. Additionally, the Ti3C2Tx/PDDA membrane also demonstrates a high flux recovery ratio of nearly 96.1% to bovine serum albumin proteins after being cleaned. More importantly, the current membrane shows excellent anti-adhesive and anti-microbial activity against Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), with inhibition rates of 90% and 95% against E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. This holds great potential for the application of the polyelectrolyte-intercalated MXene membrane in serving as a promising platform to separate molecules and/or ions in an aquatic environment. Full article
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13 pages, 3521 KiB  
Article
Construction of a Two-Dimensional GO/Ti3C2TX Composite Membrane and Investigation of Mg2+/Li+ Separation Performance
by Zhenhua Feng, Chengwen Liu, Binbin Tang, Xiaojun Yang, Wenjie Jiang, Peng Wang, Xianjun Tang, Hongshan Wang, Xiangdong Zeng and Guangyong Zeng
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(20), 2777; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13202777 - 17 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1046
Abstract
Graphene oxide (GO) two-dimensional (2D) membranes with unique layer structures and tunable layer spacing have special advantages and great potential in the field of water treatment. However, GO membranes face the issues of weak anti-swelling ability as well as poor permeability. We prepared [...] Read more.
Graphene oxide (GO) two-dimensional (2D) membranes with unique layer structures and tunable layer spacing have special advantages and great potential in the field of water treatment. However, GO membranes face the issues of weak anti-swelling ability as well as poor permeability. We prepared GO/Ti3C2TX 2D composite membranes with 2D/2D structures by intercalating Ti3C2TX nanosheets with slightly smaller sizes into GO membranes. Ti3C2TX intercalation can effectively expand the layer spacing of GO, thereby substantially enhancing the flux of the composite membrane (2.82 to 6.35 L·m−2·h−1). Moreover, the GO/Ti3C2TX composite membrane exhibited a good Mg2+/Li+ separation capability. For the simulated brine, the separation factor of M2 was 3.81, and the salt solution flux was as high as 5.26 L·m−2·h−1. Meanwhile, the incorporation of Ti3C2TX nanosheets significantly improved the stability of GO/Ti3C2TX membranes in different pH environments. This study provides a unique insight into the preparation of highly permeable and ion-selective GO membranes. Full article
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15 pages, 7196 KiB  
Article
Research on the Antibacterial Properties of MXene-Based 2D–2D Composite Materials Membrane
by Xiaojie Cheng, Xiaojian Qin, Zhenglun Su, Xun Gou, Zhaomei Yang and Hongshan Wang
Nanomaterials 2023, 13(14), 2121; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13142121 - 20 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1895
Abstract
Novel MXene-based two-dimensional (2D) membranes are widely used for water purification due to their highly controllable structure and antibacterial properties. However, in the process of membrane separation, the problems of membrane fouling, especially biological fouling, limits the further application of MXene-based membranes. In [...] Read more.
Novel MXene-based two-dimensional (2D) membranes are widely used for water purification due to their highly controllable structure and antibacterial properties. However, in the process of membrane separation, the problems of membrane fouling, especially biological fouling, limits the further application of MXene-based membranes. In this study, in order to improve the antibacterial and separation properties of membranes, three kinds of MXene-based 2D–2D composite membranes (M2~M4) were prepared using polyethersulfone (PES) as the substrate, which were GO@MXene, O-g-C3N4@MXene and BiOCl@MXene composite membranes respectively. The results showed that the antibacterial activity of M2~M4 against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was further improved, especially the antibacterial ratio of M4 against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was up to 50% and 82.4%, respectively. By comparing the surface morphology of MXene membrane and modified membrane treated bacteria through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was found that the cell density on modified membrane was significantly lower than that of pure MXene membrane. Full article
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