Enhanced Permeability for Dye Rejection of MXene Nanofiltration Membranes Via Incorporating Attapulgite Nanorods

Abstract

Due to unique physical and chemical properties, MXene is one of the promising candidate materials for water treatment. However, the water permeation flux of MXene membrane need to be improved. ATP was used to increase the flux of MXene membrane in this study. During the assembly of MXene nanosheets into MXene membrane, the ATP nanorods could insert into the stacked layers of MXene. The permeation flux and rejection rate of the composite membranes for MB solution were studied, and the working mechanism was analyzed. The MXene membrane was intercalated with ATP nanorods, which effectively increased the size of the nano-channel between layers, and the permeation flux of the MXene membrane was effectively improved. When the mass ration of MXene to ATP was 1:2, the composite membrane showed the best separation performances, such as the permeation flux of pure water increased by 97.31%. For MB solution, the permeation flux increased by 67.17%, and the rejection rate still reached 90.67%. The synergistic effect of size repulsion and electrostatic repulsion was observed during the MB separation. The highwater permeability and separation efficiency of MXene/ATP composite membranes may also enlighten the great prospects of MXene-based nanostructured materials in the dye wastewater treatment.

Keywords: MXene, Attapulgite, Methylene blue, Permeation flux, Rejection