Features of pulsed photon annealing of graphene oxide membranes for water desalination

Fabrication of reduced graphene oxide/polyvinylidene fluoride (rGO/PVDF) membranes by coating the surface of standard polymeric PVDF membranes with thin graphene oxide (GO) film is demonstrated. rGO/PVDF membranes have a better filtration efficiency than standard polymer PVDF membranes. For stabilization of rGO/PVDF membranes, a pulsed photon annealing has been used. Increase of water flow through the rGO/PVDF membranes with the decrease of the nanochannel sizes has experimentally been shown. Water transportation via planar nanochannels of rGO membranes depends on an rGO reduction time, which is explained by a decrease of the water shear viscosity activation energy in nanochannels.