Data-driven design of hybrid graphene oxide-MXene polymeric membranes for water purification

Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer promising platforms for water purification, particularly for challenging oil-in-water emulsions. Here, a hybrid membrane combining graphene oxide (GO) and MXene nanosheets was fabricated on a nylon support to explore the relationship between membrane composition and separation performance. Four membranes with varying GO loadings were evaluated, and machine learning models were applied to predict rejection efficiency using key operational parameters. Among the tested models, support vector regression achieved the highest predictive accuracy (R² = 0.952 for training, 0.936 for testing, and 0.922 for validation), effectively capturing nonlinear relationships between membrane structure and operating conditions. Feature-importance analyses identified membrane composition and pressure as dominant factors governing performance. This study demonstrates how integrating 2D materials with data-driven modeling can enable predictive design of membrane systems, supporting more efficient development of water purification technologies. Future work will expand datasets and hybrid learning approaches to further enhance predictive robustness and generalization.