This paper reports a novel class of thin film composite (TFC) membranes for forward osmosis (FO) desalination. The TFC membranes were fabricated via interfacial polymerization (IP) of aqueous mixture of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with organic solution of trimesoyl chloride (TMC) on modified polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration substrates. The chemical structures and morphologies of the synthesized GQDs and the GQDs-incorporated membranes were studied by various characterization techniques. The synthesized GQDs exhibited a narrow size distribution of 1.0–4.0 nm with an average size of 2.19 nm, and the thickness were one to three graphene layers. The results showed that GQDs nanoparticles were covalently bonded to the polyamide chains. The optimized TFC membrane with 0.050 wt% GQDs loading exhibited quite hydrophilic and neutrally charged membrane surface, along with an enhanced water flux of 12.9 L m⁻² h⁻¹ and a comparable reverse salt flux of 1.41 g m⁻² h⁻¹ when DI water and 0.5 M MgCl₂ were used as the feed solution and the draw solution, respectively. Also, the optimized GQDs-incorporated TFC membrane presented an especially good anti-fouling performance. Thus, incorporating the novel graphene nanomaterial into polymer membranes may present its great potential application in desalination, purification and wastewater treatment.

本文报道了一类用于正向渗透（FO）脱盐的新型薄膜复合（TFC）膜。TFC膜是通过聚乙烯亚胺（PEI）和石墨烯量子点（GQDs）与均苯三甲酰氯（TMC）有机溶液在改性聚丙烯腈（PAN）超滤基质上的界面聚合（IP）制备的。通过各种表征技术研究了合成的GQDs和掺入GQDs的膜的化学结构和形态。合成的GQD的尺寸分布较窄，为1.0-4.0 nm，平均尺寸为2.19 nm，厚度为1至3个石墨烯层。结果表明，GQDs纳米颗粒共价键合到聚酰胺链上。优化的TFC膜的值为0。当将去离子水和0.5 M MgCl ₂分别用作进料溶液和汲取溶液时，^-2  h ^-1和可比的反向盐通量为1.41 g m ^-2  h ^-1。此外，优化的并入GQDs的TFC膜也表现出特别好的防污性能。因此，将新型石墨烯纳米材料掺入聚合物膜中可显示其在脱盐，纯化和废水处理中的巨大潜力。