Polyamide-based membranes with structural homogeneity for ultrafast molecular sieving

Liang Shen, Ruihuan Cheng, Ming Yi, Wei-Song Hung, Susilo Japip, Lian Tian, Xuan Zhang, Shudong Jiang, Song Li () and Yan Wang ()
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Liang Shen: Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education
Ruihuan Cheng: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Ming Yi: Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education
Wei-Song Hung: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
Susilo Japip: National University of Singapore
Lian Tian: Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education
Xuan Zhang: Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education
Shudong Jiang: Anhui University
Song Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Yan Wang: Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Thin-film composite membranes formed by conventional interfacial polymerization generally suffer from the depth heterogeneity of the polyamide layer, i.e., nonuniformly distributed free volume pores, leading to the inefficient permselectivity. Here, we demonstrate a facile and versatile approach to tune the nanoscale homogeneity of polyamide-based thin-film composite membranes via inorganic salt-mediated interfacial polymerization process. Molecular dynamics simulations and various characterization techniques elucidate in detail the underlying molecular mechanism by which the salt addition confines and regulates the diffusion of amine monomers to the water-oil interface and thus tunes the nanoscale homogeneity of the polyamide layer. The resulting thin-film composite membranes with thin, smooth, dense, and structurally homogeneous polyamide layers demonstrate a permeance increment of ~20–435% and/or solute rejection enhancement of ~10–170% as well as improved antifouling property for efficient reverse/forward osmosis and nanofiltration separations. This work sheds light on the tunability of the polyamide layer homogeneity via salt-regulated interfacial polymerization process.

Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28183-1

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