Effect and regulation mechanism of oxidation degrees on the O–MoS2 structure and separation performance of nanofiltration membrane

Oxidized molybdenum disulfide (O–MoS 2 ) as a two-dimensional (2D) functional nanosheets material, has been used to fabricate high separation performance nanofiltration (NF) membranes for water treatment. However, the effect and regulation mechanism of the degree of oxidation on structure and separation performance of O–MoS 2 modified NF membrane has not yet been fully understood. In this work, O–MoS 2 with different oxidation degrees was synthesized by adjusting the oxidation time and KMnO 4 oxidant content via Hummers’ method. The results demonstrated that the O–MoS 2 synthesized under with an oxidation time of 3 h and MoS 2 :KMnO 4 ratio of 1:2 had excellent stability under acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions. The pure water flux increased 2.5 times and the Na 2 SO 4 salt rejection increased to 97.6% with this O–MoS 2 incorporation compared to the control membrane. The influence of different oxidation degrees on the performance of O–MoS 2 is a breakthrough finding of this work to provide a theoretical basis for the application of O–MoS 2 in the field of membrane separations .