Combustion Fabrication of Nanoporous Graphene for Ionic Separation Membranes

Abstract Porous graphene membranes hold great promise for high‐selectivity separation. Moreover, their practical application is limited by the lack of a simple and efficient method for the synthesis of porous graphene. Here, a rapid and scalable method is developed for the synthesis of porous graphene via partial combustion of graphene oxide imperfectly covered by hydrotalcite. This method is not only less energy‐ and time‐intensive than existing ones, but also allows precise control of pore size. Remarkably, the resulting membrane of porous graphene exhibits high selectivity for K + and Na + (α = 3.84) separation. Hence, this facile route for preparing membranes of porous graphene oxide might direct application membranes in environmental, energy, desalination, and biomedical fields.