Graphene oxide-modified g-C3N4 nanosheet membranes for efficient hydrogen purification

• A g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets gas separation membrane is developed by the GO-modified method. • The fabricated membranes show excellent H 2 purification separation performance. • The membrane shows enhanced strength and good stability during long-term test. Highly permeable and selective membranes are desirable for energy-efficient gas separation. Two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) has attracted significant attention owing to its suitable pore size, high pore density, and thus minimal mass-transfer barrier. Nevertheless, it is difficult to retain the structural integrity of its two-dimensional plane during the delamination of bulky g-C 3 N 4 into nanosheets, which has greatly hindered the preparation of high-quality g-C 3 N 4 gas separation membranes. In this study, flexible graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets containing abundant functional groups were used to cover and remedy some defects in g-C 3 N 4 nanosheets. Consequently, a continuous g-C 3 N 4 -GO membrane was obtained that exhibited excellent H 2 permeation performance (H 2 permeance: 2.16 × 10 −7 mol m −2 s −1 Pa −1 , H 2 /CO 2 selectivity: 39.2) and good stability, which is promising for practical hydrogen separation processes.