Effects of Solvent Molecules on the Interlayer Spacing of Graphene Oxide

Graphene oxide （GO） contains numerous functional groups that facilitate the intercalation of polar solvents. The properties and applications of GO are closely related to its interlayer spacing. We report on the changes in the interlayer spacing of GO after the adsorption of water molecules and the polar organic solvents C2H602 （EG）, C3HTNO （DMF）, C5H9NO （NMP）. Experiments were conducted to investigate the variations in the functional groups and structure of GO after solvent adsorp-tion, and they play a vital role in modeling and verifying the results of molecular dynamics simulation. The most stable GO structures are obtained through molecular dynamics simulation. The expansion of the interlayer spacing of GO after the adsorption of monolayer solvent molecules corresponds to the minimum three-dimensional size of the solvent molecules. The spatial arrangement of solvent molecules also contributes to the changes in interlayer spacing. Most adsorbed molecules are oriented parallel to the carbon plane of GO. However, as additional molecules are adsorbed into the interlaminations of GO, the adsorbed molecules are oriented perpendicular to the carbon plane of GO, and a large space forms between two GO interlayers. In addition, the role of large molecules in increasing interlayer spacing becomes more crucial than that of water molecules in the adsorption of binary solvent systems by GO.

Extractant(2,3-dimethylbutyl)(2,4,40-trimethylpentyl) phosphinic acid(INET-3) impregnated onto XAD-16 and its extraction and separation performance for heavy rare earths from chloride media

（2,3-Dimethylbutyl）（2,4,40-trimethylpentyl）phosphinic acid（INET-3） was impregnated onto dry macroporous resins XAD-16 and pretreated XAD-16 with ethyl alcohol and HCl（Pre-XAD-16） to prepare the solvent impregnated resins SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 and SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16. The molecular weight distribution of the low molecular weight（LMW） polymers washed off by ethyl alcohol during XAD-16 pretreatment was determined by gel permeation chromatography（GPC）. The macroporous resins（XAD-16 ＆ Pre-XAD-16）, the corresponding solvent impregnated resins（SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 ＆SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16） and the PVA coated SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16 with boric acid as cross-linking agent were characterized by FT-IR, SEM-EDS and TGA. The effects of XAD-16 pretreatment and PVA coating technology on RE（III） adsorption equilibrium time, INET-3 losses during extraction and adsorption capacity were investigated. The adsorption kinetics, selectivity and stripping behaviors of SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 were further studied. The washed off LMW polymers had the Mn of 36,656, Mw of 40,310 and polydispersity coefficient of 1.10. The SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 had shorter equilibrium time,less INET-3 loss and more Tm（III） adsorption capacity than the SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16. The PVA coated SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16 had less INET-3 loss and more Tm（III） adsorption capacity but longer equilibrium time than the uncoated SIRs-INET-3/Pre-XAD-16. The adsorption of RE（III） on the SIRsINET-3/XAD-16 followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The Tm（III） accumulative adsorption amounts onto SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 after eight extraction stages was 23.6 mg/g. The separation factors of adjacent heavy RE（III） β（Er/Ho）, β（Tm/Er）, β（Yb/Tm） and β（Lu/Yb） values were 1.76, 2.59, 2.56 and 1.19,respectively. The adsorbed Lu（III） onto the SIRs-INET-3/XAD-16 can be stripped completely by 1.0 mol/L H2SO4.