The desalination technologies of sea water are becoming of importance in providing sustainable fresh water. Graphene, as a fashion of two-dimensional carbon monolayer, has emerged as a promising candidate to build up the material platform for water desalination. In this review, we

summarize the development of tunable graphene systems applied in three kinds of water desalination techniques, including capacitive deionization, solar steam generation, and nanofiltration. The current achievements in this field have been highlighted with discussion of the challenges for desalination technologies.