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Effective ion sieving with Ti3C2Tx MXene membranes for production of drinking water from seawater

Author

Listed:
  • Li Ding

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Libo Li

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Yanchang Liu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Yi Wu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Zong Lu

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Junjie Deng

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Yanying Wei

    (South China University of Technology)

  • Jürgen Caro

    (Leibniz University of Hannover)

  • Haihui Wang

    (South China University of Technology)

Abstract

Traditional ways of producing drinking water from groundwater, water recycling and water conservation are not sufficient. Seawater desalination would close the gap but the main technology used is thermally driven multi-flash distillation, which is energy consuming and not sustainable. Stacking two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials into lamellar membranes is a promising technique in the pursuit of both high selectivity and permeance in water desalination. However, 2D membranes tend to swell in water, and increasing their stability in aqueous solution is still challenging. Here, we report non-swelling, MXene membranes prepared by the intercalation of Al3+ ions. Swelling is prevented by strong interactions between Al3+ and oxygen functional groups terminating at the MXene surface. These membranes show excellent non-swelling stability in aqueous solutions up to 400 h and possess high rejection of NaCl (~89.5–99.6%) with fast water fluxes (~1.1–8.5 l m−2 h−1). Such membranes can be easily fabricated by simple filtration and ion-intercalating methods, which holds promise for their scalability.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Ding & Libo Li & Yanchang Liu & Yi Wu & Zong Lu & Junjie Deng & Yanying Wei & Jürgen Caro & Haihui Wang, 2020. "Effective ion sieving with Ti3C2Tx MXene membranes for production of drinking water from seawater," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 296-302, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0474-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0474-0
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Rongming Xu & Yuan Kang & Weiming Zhang & Bingcai Pan & Xiwang Zhang, 2023. "Two-dimensional MXene membranes with biomimetic sub-nanochannels for enhanced cation sieving," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Rezakazemi, Mashallah & Arabi Shamsabadi, Ahmad & Lin, Haiqing & Luis, Patricia & Ramakrishna, Seeram & Aminabhavi, Tejraj M., 2021. "Sustainable MXenes-based membranes for highly energy-efficient separations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Tianshu Chu & Ze Zhou & Pengfei Tian & Tingting Yu & Cheng Lian & Bowei Zhang & Fu-Zhen Xuan, 2024. "Nanofluidic sensing inspired by the anomalous water dynamics in electrical angstrom-scale channels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Li, Zhijing & Lei, Hui & Mu, Zijun & Zhang, Yuan & Zhang, Jingquan & Zhou, Yigang & Xie, Huaqing & Yu, Wei, 2022. "Reduced graphene oxide composite fiber for solar-driven evaporation and seawater desalination," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 932-942.
    5. Kecheng Guan & Yanan Guo & Zhan Li & Yuandong Jia & Qin Shen & Keizo Nakagawa & Tomohisa Yoshioka & Gongping Liu & Wanqin Jin & Hideto Matsuyama, 2023. "Deformation constraints of graphene oxide nanochannels under reverse osmosis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Wang, Chengbing & Li, Wei & Li, Zhengtong & Fang, Baizeng, 2020. "Solar thermal harvesting based on self-doped nanocermet: Structural merits, design strategies and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    7. Xiaoyang Pan & Xuhui Yang & Maoqing Yu & Xiaoxiao Lu & Hao Kang & Min-Quan Yang & Qingrong Qian & Xiaojing Zhao & Shijing Liang & Zhenfeng Bian, 2023. "2D MXenes polar catalysts for multi-renewable energy harvesting applications," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Yuan Kang & Ting Hu & Yuqi Wang & Kaiqiang He & Zhuyuan Wang & Yvonne Hora & Wang Zhao & Rongming Xu & Yu Chen & Zongli Xie & Huanting Wang & Qinfen Gu & Xiwang Zhang, 2023. "Nanoconfinement enabled non-covalently decorated MXene membranes for ion-sieving," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Qian Zhang & Bo Gao & Ling Zhang & Xiaopeng Liu & Jixiang Cui & Yijun Cao & Hongbo Zeng & Qun Xu & Xinwei Cui & Lei Jiang, 2023. "Anomalous water molecular gating from atomic-scale graphene capillaries for precise and ultrafast molecular sieving," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Sijie Wan & Xiang Li & Ying Chen & Nana Liu & Shijun Wang & Yi Du & Zhiping Xu & Xuliang Deng & Shixue Dou & Lei Jiang & Qunfeng Cheng, 2022. "Ultrastrong MXene films via the synergy of intercalating small flakes and interfacial bridging," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Hai Liu & Xinxi Huang & Yang Wang & Baian Kuang & Wanbin Li, 2024. "Nanowire-assisted electrochemical perforation of graphene oxide nanosheets for molecular separation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

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