Polydopamine functionalized graphene oxide membrane with the sandwich structure for osmotic energy conversion

Ion-selective membrane is the key component for osmotic energy conversion. Nanofluid channels based on two-dimensional materials have advantages of facile preparation, tunable channel size, and easy upscaling, which is promising for efficient osmotic energy harvesting. However, further improvement of the output power is hindered by the low ion sensitivity for the limited charge density. Herein, we demonstrate the preparation of a cation-selective polydopamine-coated graphene oxide composite membrane with the sandwich structure by a simple interfacial polymerization technique, which greatly improves the surface charge density and further generates a power density of 3.4 W/m² under river water and seawater. The GO membrane is firstly fabricated to function as the supporting layer and provide the reaction sites. And the ultrathin selective layer of the polydopamine membrane is chemically bonded with the GO layer by the in-situ polymerization on both sides of the GO membrane. The sandwiched nanofluidic membrane with ultrahigh charge density exhibits both high cation selectivity and ionic conductivity, benefiting the performance of osmotic energy conversion. The economic, easy-prepared method of the sandwiched nanofluidic membrane provides a promising strategy for high-performance osmotic energy conversion.