Synthesis of Graphene Oxide Membrane for Separation of p‐Xylene and o‐Xylene by Pervaporation

Abstract In this study, a graphene oxide (GO) membrane is developed for the separation of p‐xylene (PX, 0.58 nm) from o‐xylene (OX, 0.68 nm). Attributing to the suitable d‐spacing size (0.58 nm), the GO membrane allows more PX to pass through than OX, leading to a high PX/OX selectivity. At 110 °C for the separation of equimolar PX/OX mixture, the PX/OX separation factor is 9.4 and PX flux is 145.3 g m−2h−1, respectively, which is promising for the separation of xylene isomers by pervaporation. The separation performance of the GO membrane is further confirmed by simulation studies.