4. Conclusions
In conclusion, we reported a versatile approach to prepare the highly-permeable GO membranes for fast molecule separation using the templates of Ni(OH)2 nanosheets. The Ni(OH)2@GO composite nanosheets were prepared facilely by mixing GO nanosheets and Ni(OH)2 nanosheets. The membranes were fabricated by directly filtering the composite nanosheets over the porous supports, followed by reduction and acid dissolution for Ni(OH)2 removal. The resulting NST-GO membranes have traditional laminar structure with the increased d -spacing of about 1.14 nm, which means water channels are broadened. Meanwhile, the hydrophilicity of the membranes is preserved largely because the intercalators protect most areas on the GO from reduction. Therefore, the 880 nm-thick NST-GO shows the water permeance of high to 120.3 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 with a sufficient DY rejection of 87.9%. Moreover, the as-prepared membranes have the good size selectivity in the separation of organic dyes. The newly developed strategy of intercalating and sacrificing hydroxide nanosheets shows a great potential in controlling d -spacing of laminar GO membranes.