A facile and effective strategy that
can be used to fabricate electrically
conductive membranes (ECMs) of diverse filtration performance (i.e.,
water productivity and solute rejection) is not available yet. Herein,
we report a facile method that enables the fabrication of ECMs of
a broad performance range. The method is based on the use of polyethylenimine
(PEI), glutaraldehyde, and any of a diverse set of conductive materials
to cast an electrically conductive layer atop any of a diverse set
of substrates (i.e., from microfiltration to reverse osmosis membranes).
We developed the reported ECM fabrication method using graphite as
the conductive material and PVDF membranes as substrates. We demonstrate
that graphite-PVDF ECMs were stable and electrically conductive and
could be successfully used for solute filtration and electrochemical
degradation. We also confirmed that the PEI/glutaraldehyde-based ECM
fabrication method is suitable for conductive materials other than
graphite, including carbon nanotubes, reduced graphene oxide, activated
charcoal, and silver nanoparticles. Compared with the substrates used
for their fabrication, ECMs showed low electrical sheet resistances
that varied with conductive material, increased solute rejection,
and reduced water permeance. Taken together, this work presents a
promising general strategy for the fabrication of ECMs for environmental
applications from diverse substrates and conductive materials.