Convenient Confinement: Interplay of Solution Conditions and Graphene Oxide Film Structure on Rare Earth Separations

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes are excellent candidates for a range of separation applications, including rare earth segregation and radionuclide decontamination. Understanding nanoscale water and ion behavior near interfacial GO is critical for groundbreaking membrane advances, including improved selectivity and permeability. We experimentally examine the impact of solution conditions on water and lanthanide interactions with interfacial GO films and connect these results to GO membrane performance. The investigation of the confined films at the air-water interface with a combination of surface-specific spectroscopy and X-ray scattering techniques allows us to understand water and ion behaviors separately. Sum frequency generation spectroscopy reveals a dramatic change in interfacial water organization because of graphene oxide film deprotonation. Interfacial X-ray fluorescence measurements show a 17× increase in adsorbed lanthanide to the GO film from subphase pH 3 to pH 9. Liquid surface X-ray reflectivity data show an additional 2.7 e per Ų for GO films at pH 9 versus pH 3 as well. These results are connected to GO membrane performance, which show increased selectivity and decreased flux for membranes filtering pH 9 solutions. We posit insoluble lanthanide hydroxides form at higher pHs. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of interfacial experiments on model GO systems.