Hollow Polyhedron-Modified Graphene Oxide Membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration with Enhanced Permeance

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is an emerging membrane-based technology for molecular separation. The design and fabrication of membranes with unique structures are important to obtain high performance. Herein, ZIF-8 nanoparticles are grown in situ on the surface of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and then assembled on a tubular ceramic substrate through a vacuum-assisted assembly method. ZIF-8 anchored on the GO nanosheets is evolved into ZnS polyhedra with a hollow structure through in situ sulfurization. The formed ZnS@GO membrane is composed of a layered structure of GO with the interlayer intercalated by ZnS hollow polyhedra and demonstrates high permeance for organic solvents. Compared to that of the ZIF-8@GO membrane, the permeance of the ZnS@GO membrane is enhanced by 4.4-fold when separating dyes from methanol, indicating their promising potential in the application of organic solvent nanofiltration.