Vacancy Functionalized MoS2 Nanolaminated Membranes for Efficient Sieving in Forward Osmosis

T Ying and N Onofrio and L Mei and HR Peng and Z Zhang and M Gu and C Ma and Y Chen and J Zhou and KMY Leung and C Cheng and S Li and BL Liu and CY Tang and D Voiry and ZY Zeng, ADVANCED MATERIALS, 37 (2025).

DOI: 10.1002/adma.202504781

2D transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) based nanolaminates are promising candidates for water purification. However, fabricating nanochannels with tunable capillary widths remain a challenge. This study proposed a sulfur vacancy functionalization strategy for fabricating high performance nanolaminate membranes by grafting three kinds of thiol (S-H) containing molecules (Cysteine, 3-Mercapto-1,2-propanediol, 1-Propanethiol) on MoS2 nanosheets, in which propanethiol functionalized MoS2 membrane exhibited best salt rejection (99.3%) and water/salt selectivity (800 bar(-1)) in forward osmosis (draw solution: sucrose solution). It is found the capillary width increased from 0.2 & Aring; in pristine MoS2 to approximate to 5 & Aring; in propanethiol functionalized MoS2 membranes. Numerical simulations suggest that nanofluidic properties of the functionalized membranes are governed by the fundamental interaction between water and the corresponding S-H functional group, and the interlayer distance. Importantly, since the S-H containing molecules can repair MoS2 nanosheets by fitting into the sulfur vacancies, the stability of the membranes is also improved with minimal swelling, which is promising for their practical applications.

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