Fate and Transport of Graphene Oxides in Porous Media: Important Role of Temperature.

Knowledge of the fate and transport of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets in porous media is essential to understand their environmental risks. In this work, laboratory stability, batch sorption, and sand column experiments were conducted to determine the role of temperature in controlling the fate and transport of GO in porous media under various conditions. Temperature showed strong effects on GO stability in aqueous solutions under all tested conditions. Although results from batch sorption experiment showed that temperature affected the sorption of GO onto the sand grains at the low IS, the interactions between GO and the sand were relatively weak, which did make the temperature effect prominent. Under high IS conditions, temperature also showed notable effects on GO retention and transport in porous media. For all the combinations of experimental conditions, the higher the temperature was, the less mobile GO particles were. The importance of temperature to GO fate and transport in porous media was further verified though simulations from an advection–dispersion-reaction model.