Abstract:Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have good separation performance, but their low water flux and poor stability need further improvement.For this reason, this paper employs a hydrothermal method to prepare reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and utilizes silicon dioxide (SiO2) to intercalate RGO, and then prepares RGO/SiO2 composite membranes by vacuum filtration.The results show that SiO2 intercalation further improves the water flux without loss of rejection and stability.When SiO2 (0.05 mg/mL) is 3 mL, the pure water flux of the RGO/SiO2 composite membrane is as high as 21.1 L/(m2·h·bar) which is about 6 times of that of the pure GO membrane, and the retention rate of Na2SO4 is about 83.7%.The order of rejection for different salts was R(Na2SO4) > R(MgSO4) > R(NaCl) > R(MgCl2). Therefore, the RGO/SiO2 composite membrane has a certain potential for application in desalination.