Ultrafast ion sieving using nanoporous polymeric membranes

Pengfei Wang, Mao Wang, Feng Liu (), Siyuan Ding, Xue Wang, Guanghua Du, Jie Liu, Pavel Apel, Patrick Kluth, Christina Trautmann and Yugang Wang ()
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Pengfei Wang: Peking University
Mao Wang: Peking University
Feng Liu: Peking University
Siyuan Ding: Peking University
Xue Wang: Peking University
Guanghua Du: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jie Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Pavel Apel: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
Patrick Kluth: Australian National University
Christina Trautmann: GSI Helmholtzzentrum and Technische Universität Darmstadt
Yugang Wang: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The great potential of nanoporous membranes for water filtration and chemical separation has been challenged by the trade-off between selectivity and permeability. Here we report on nanoporous polymer membranes with an excellent balance between selectivity and permeability of ions. Our membranes are fabricated by irradiating 2-μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate Lumirror® films with GeV heavy ions followed by ultraviolet exposure. These membranes show a high transport rate of K+ ions of up to 14 mol h−1 m−2 and a selectivity of alkali metal ions over heavy metal ions of >500. Combining transport experiments and molecular dynamics simulations with a polymeric nanopore model, we demonstrate that the high permeability is attributable to the presence of nanopores with a radius of ~0.5 nm and a density of up to 5 × 1010 cm−2, and the selectivity is ascribed to the interaction between the partially dehydrated ions and the negatively charged nanopore wall.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02941-6

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