Ultrathin and stable organic-inorganic lamellar composite membrane for high-performance organic solvent nanofiltration

[Display omitted] •An ultrathin and stable organic-inorganic lamellar composite membrane was designed.•Precise control of membrane structure is realized by electrostatic atomization method.•High solvent permeance and precise molecule rejection are both guaranteed.•The membrane achieves excellent structure, operation, pressure, and cycling stabilities. Two-dimensional (2D) lamellar membranes hold a broad prospect for separation applications. However, their design and development need controllable fabrication of ultrathin and stable lamellar membranes. Here, an organic-inorganic lamellar composite membrane with layer-by-layer graphene oxide (GO) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) structure was fabricated through a dual-needle electrostatic atomization strategy. The GO nanosheets work as skeleton to ensure ultrathin and defect-free membrane structure, while PEI cross-links adjacent GO nanosheets for structure stability. Importantly, this membrane achieves fast polar solvent permeance: 46.2 and 146.8 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 for water and acetone, outperforming most reported GO-based membranes. Meanwhile, the ordered and cross-linked interlayer channels provide accurate size sieving for industrial dyes (larger than 1.6 nm) with the rejection of above 96%. Significantly, this lamellar composite membrane displays excellent structure, operation, pressure, and cycling stabilities, which are difficult for traditional lamellar membranes.