Nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphene induced by a multiple confinement strategy for membrane separation of rare earth
Hongxin Tan,
Xin Zhang,
Zhan Li,
Qing Liang,
Jinsheng Wu,
Yanli Yuan,
Shiwei Cao,
Jia Chen,
Juewen Liu,
Hongdeng Qiu
Affiliations
Hongxin Tan
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Xin Zhang
School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Zhan Li
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Corresponding author
Qing Liang
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Jinsheng Wu
Lanzhou Ecology and Environment Monitoring Center of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China
Yanli Yuan
Lanzhou Ecology and Environment Monitoring Center of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China
Shiwei Cao
Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Jia Chen
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
Juewen Liu
Department of Chemistry, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Hongdeng Qiu
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Rare earth separation is still a major challenge in membrane science. Nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphene (NDNG) is a promising material for membrane separation, but it has not yet been tested for rare earth separation, and it is limited by multi-complex synthesis. Herein, we developed a one-step, facile, and scalable approach to synthesize NDNG with tunable pore size and controlled nitrogen content using confinement combustion. Nanoporous hydrotalcite from Zn(NO3)2 is formed between layers of graphene oxide (GO) absorbed with phenylalanine via confinement growth, thus preparing the sandwich hydrotalcite/phenylalanine/GO composites. Subsequently, area-confinement combustion of hydrotalcite nanopores is used to etch graphene nanopores, and the hydrotalcite interlayer as a closed flat nanoreactor induces two-dimensional space confinement doping of planar nitrogen into graphene. The membrane prepared by NDNG achieves separation of Sc3+ from the other rare earth ions with excellent selectivity (∼3.7) through selective electrostatic interactions of pyrrolic-N, and separation selectivity of ∼1.7 for Tm3+/Sm3+.
