Universal and tunable liquid–liquid separation by nanoparticle-embedded gating membranes based on a self-defined interfacial parameter

Xiangyu Li, Jingjing Liu, Ruixiang Qu, Weifeng Zhang, Yanan Liu, Huajun Zhai, Yen Wei, Hanshi Hu and Lin Feng ()
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Xiangyu Li: Tsinghua University
Jingjing Liu: Tsinghua University
Ruixiang Qu: Tsinghua University
Weifeng Zhang: Hangzhou Innovation Research Institute of Beihang University
Yanan Liu: Tsinghua University
Huajun Zhai: Tsinghua University
Yen Wei: Tsinghua University
Hanshi Hu: Tsinghua University
Lin Feng: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Superwetting porous membranes with tunable liquid repellency are highly desirable in broad domains including scientific research, chemical industry, and environmental protection. Such membranes should allow for controllable droplet bouncing or spreading, which is difficult to achieve for low surface energy organic liquids (OLs). Here we develop an interfacial physical parameter to regulate the OL wettability of nanoparticle-embedded membranes by structuring synergistic layers with reconfigurable surface energy components. Under the tunable solid-liquid interaction in the aggregation-induced process, the membranes demonstrate positive/negative liquid gating regularity for polar protic liquids, polar aprotic liquids, and nonpolar liquids. Such a membrane can be employed as self-adaptive gating for various immiscible liquid mixtures with superior separation efficiency and permeation flux, even afford successive achievement of high-performance in situ extraction-back extraction coupling. This study should provide distinctive insights into intrinsic wetting behaviors and have pioneered a rational strategy to design high-performance separation materials for diverse applications.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20369-9

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