i-Lab and CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Suzhou 215123, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Jun 1;8(21):13607-14. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b03389. Epub 2016 May 19.
With the growing demand for small- and large-scale bioprocesses, advanced membranes with high energy efficiency are highly required. However, conventional polymer-based membranes often have to sacrifice selectivity for permeability. In this work, we report the fabrication of a thermoresponsive composite ultrathin membrane with precisely controlled nanopores for high-throughput separation. The composite membrane is made by grafting a PEG analogue thermoresponsive copolymer onto an ultrathin single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) membrane via π-π interaction with no use of the common "grafting from" synthesis approach. The composite membrane exhibits ultrahigh water permeation flux as high as 6430 L m(-2) h(-1) at 40 °C, and more importantly, the pore size of the membrane could be finely adjusted by utilizing the thermoresponsive property of the grafted copolymer. With the temperature changing below and above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the copolymer, the effective pore size of the membrane can be tuned precisely between approximately 12 and 14 nm, which could be applied to effectively separate materials with very small size differences through size sieving.
随着对小规模和大规模生物工艺的需求不断增长，人们迫切需要具有高效率能量的先进膜。然而，传统的基于聚合物的膜往往不得不牺牲选择性来提高渗透性。在这项工作中，我们报告了一种热响应复合超薄膜的制造，该膜具有精确控制的纳米孔，可实现高通量分离。该复合膜是通过π-π相互作用将 PEG 类似物温敏共聚体接枝到超薄单壁碳纳米管 (SWCNTs) 膜上而制成的，而无需使用常见的“从枝接出”合成方法。该复合膜在 40°C 时表现出超高的水渗透通量，高达 6430 L m(-2) h(-1)，更重要的是，通过利用接枝共聚物的温敏特性，可以精细地调整膜的孔径。当共聚物的下临界溶液温度 (LCST) 以下和以上时，膜的有效孔径可以在大约 12nm 至 14nm 之间精确调节，这可用于通过尺寸筛分有效地分离具有非常小尺寸差异的材料。
