Defects Graphene as membranes for water desalination

Abstract

Due to the unique properties of low-dimensional materials, understanding and controlling defects are essential to fully exploit these novel materials' potential for applications such as electronics, photonics, etc. Nevertheless, graphene defects can also be suitable for many other applications. Using plasma sputtering and experimental Raman data, we can easily create and investigate defects on CVD graphene on Si02 or even on epitaxial graphene grown on SiC [1]. We estimate the defect density by fitting experimental Raman spectra to calculated spectra employing the spectral moment's method [2] that incidentally also identifies the defects type (vacancies) and size (~ 1 nm - 2.6 nm). With this in hand, we can model a membrane's molecular filtering efficiency using molecular dynamics simulation. These results show that it is feasible to engineer a graphene membrane for water desalination.

Funding Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by OCP project grant AS70, "Towards phosphorene-based materials and devices,” and by the support of the Chair "Multiphysics and HPC" led by theMohammed VI Polytechnic University, sponsored by OCP.