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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Graphene-Based Polyhedrons via Origami-Like Self-Folding
Published on: September 23, 2018
Fabrication of sub-nanometer pores on graphene membrane for ion selective transport
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro-Nano Biomedical Instruments, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China. kedongbi@seu.edu.cn yunfeichen@seu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
The ability to sieve ions through nanopores with high throughput has significant importance in seawater desalination and other separation applications. In this study, a plasma etching process has been demonstrated to be an efficient way to produce high-density nanopores on graphene membranes with tunable size in the sub-nanometer range. Besides the pore size, the nanopore density is also controllable through adjusting the exposure time of the sample to argon or oxygen plasma. The plasma-treated graphene membranes can selectively transport protons, Na+ and Cl- ions. Density function theory calculations uncover that the sp3 and vacancy-type defects construct different energy barriers for different ions, which allow the defected graphene membrane to selectively transport ions. Our study indicates that oxygen plasma etching can be used as a very convenient and efficient method for fabricating a monolayer filtration graphene membrane with tunable sub-nanometer pores.
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