[CCoE Notice] Thesis Announcement: Dhruval Shah, "Plasma-treated mxene intercalated nanoporous graphene oxide membrane for molecular separation"

[Greenwell, Stephen J]

[Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering]
Plasma-treated mxene intercalated nanoporous graphene oxide membrane for molecular separation

Dhruval Shah

April 17, 2025; 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Location: Chemical Engineering Conference Room (S234), Eng. Bldg. 1
Committee Chairs:
Alamgir Karim, Ph.D.
Committee Members:
Triantafillos J. Mountziaris, Ph.D. | Devin L. Shaffer, Ph.D.
Abstract
Membrane-based water purification is a solution that is vital to removing the obstacles that the whole world faces for the purpose of acquiring clean water. For their property of obtaining high ion rejection in nanofiltration membranes, technologies, such as graphene oxide (GO), 2-D nanomaterials have taken center stage in the water purification industry as a solution. Nevertheless, a significant limitation of GO-based membranes is their inherent swelling, which detracts from separation performance and long-term stability. This study builds upon previous studies in which crosslinked membranes made of GO and MXene were reported. The material used in this setup had self-crosslinking functionality through Ti-O-Ti interactions that resulted in reduced membrane swelling and still managed the performance of dye and ion rejection at high levels. However, two steps of the prior studies, namely thermal annealing and mechanical compression, were used for the crosslinking reaction to take place, which limited both process scalability and membrane performance.
We also propose in this study a new route in which the procedure incorporates both microwave-assisted annealing and plasma treatment. It consists of arc discharge using microwave-assisted eel heating technology to make up the nanoporous graphene oxide membranes running with MXene. The process uses microwave radiation to create a highly conductive (with a powerful density of sp² carbon domains) nanoporous graphene oxide structure and the growth of crosslinking bridges. So, this modification leads to a membrane that is more robust, swelling is suppressed, and a compact nanometer-scaled porous structure is formed.
The GO-MXene membranes that have been developed and treated with plasma have a very good water permeance of 3.6 LMH/bar and they outshine even the best previously reported GO-MXene membranes. Also, the salt rejection tests that have been performed at concentrations of 500 to 1000 ppm show > 90% rejection for MgCl₂ and NaCl, while the dye filtration experiments have 100% rejection of organic dyes. The report, therefore, demonstrates that the role of plasma treatment is substantial in improving both membrane efficacy and lifespan. Thus, in this task, we have paved the path for establishing an advanced membrane comprising GO-MXene. The method has been shown to be scalable and excellent, and the membranes have been developed for the highest efficiency nanofiltration applications.
[Engineered For What's Next]


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