Water pumping effect over the organic ions defined graphene oxide membrane impulses high flux desalination

Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have shown great potential in ionic sieving from aqueous solutions. However, it remains challenging for GO to exclude small ions with a large water flux. Herein, organic are confined onto the interlaminations form precisely restricted 2D channel size of 0.71 nm, which presents >99.9% NaCl rejections and high freshwater fluxes via pervaporation method, both being orders magnitude higher than that common membranes. Theoretical calculations reveal that, apart controlling by strong cation–/anion–π π–π interactions, act as vapor traps remarkably shorten diffusion distance then pumps significantly enlarge permeability. It not only theoretically explains low permeability over channels, but also experimentally demonstrates fast complete desalination on ions-GO membrane.