Fabrication of positively charged nanofiltration membrane via the layer-by-layer assembly of graphene oxide and polyethylenimine for desalination

Highly positively charged nanofiltration (NF) membranes have been prepared via a layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technique using graphene oxide (GO) and polyethyleneimine (PEI). The high aspect ratio and unique 2D structure of GO nanosheets enabled them to be easily assembled on the membrane surface, and the intrinsic low resistant channels within the GO nanosheets resulted in a high water flux of the membrane. By assembled a PEI layer on the membrane outer surface, the composite membrane exhibited high positive charge and resulted in the high rejections to multivalent ions. The effects of deposition time, PEI and GO concentrations on separation performance of the NF membranes were detailed studied. The best performance among all the membranes was achieved with salt rejections of 93.9% and 38.1% for Mg2+ and Na+, and a water flux of 4.2 L/m2 h bar at 30 °C and 0.5 MPa. The attractive performance of these NF membranes showed a great potential in the industrial application of water softening.