High performance of graphene oxide (GO)-thiosemicarbazide (TSC) modified membrane for pervaporation desalination with TSC performed as a novel cross-linker

Graphene oxide (abbreviated as GO)-based membranes have shown tremendous potential for desalination. Nevertheless, it is still a major challenge to adjust the interlayer spacing of GO nanosheets and suppress their swelling in aqueous solution to achieve excellent separation properties. Herein, using ceramic membrane as substrate, thiosemicarbazide (TSC) was creatively used to cross-link with GO to tune the interlayer spacing of GO nanosheets. Through vacuum filtration, the GO-TSC modified membrane (abbreviated as GO-TSC membrane) was prepared and was subsequently used for pervaporation (PV) desalination. Results indicated the GO-TSC membrane exhibited a robust structure and presented great desalination performance with the water flux of 6.01 L/(m2·h) and the corresponding salt rejection of over 99.90 % towards 3.5 wt % sodium chloride aqueous solution at 60 °C. This work provides a novel strategy in the way of preparing GO-based membranes for PV desalination.