Pervaporation desalination of a novel graphene oxide-based two-dimensional nanosheet membrane towards shale gas wastewater

graphene oxide (GO), thiosemicarbazide (TSC) and polyamide (PA) are cross-linked for desalination treatment • The GO/TSC/PA composite membrane exhibits high desalination performance (>99.5%) towards shale gas wastewater • The GO/TSC/PA composite membrane shows good stability after 5-cycled operation The high salinity of shale gas wastewater (abbreviated as SGW) renders it exceptionally challenging for conventional wastewater treatment. This study used graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets as an effective filtration layer and porous ceramic as a substrate for SGW desalination. To enhance the stability between the GO layer and the ceramic and simultaneously mitigate GO swelling, polyamide (PA) and thiosemicarbazide (TSC) were both introduced as cross-linkers. Results indicated that the as-prepared GO/TSC/PA composite membrane exhibited high stability during the pervaporation desalination process, primarily due to the introduction of amino groups. Under optimized conditions, the GO/TSC/PA composite membrane achieved a maximum water flux of 4.87 L/(m 2 ·h) and a highest salt rejection efficiency exceeding 99.50%. The precise ionic composition and concentrations of the SGW were analyzed, and the removal rate for each ion was also determined. This study provides a novel approach for preparing GO-based membranes to address the challenges of industrial wastewater desalination. Synopsis: Download: Download high-res image (232KB) Download: Download full-size image A high-performance, stable graphene oxide (GO)/thiosemicarbazide (TSC)/polyamide (PA) composite membrane was prepared and used for desalinating shale gas wastewater (SGW)