CSIRO , Private Bag 10, Clayton South, Victoria 3169, Australia.
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Converson and Storage, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Apr 26;9(16):14401-14408. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b02295. Epub 2017 Apr 11.
Membrane materials with high permeability to solvents while rejecting dissolved contaminants are crucial to lowering the energy costs associated with liquid separations. However, the current lack of stable high-permeability materials require innovative engineering solutions to yield high-performance, thin membranes using stable polymers with low permeabilities. Poly[1-(trimethylsilyl)-1-propyne] (PTMSP) is one of the most permeable polymers but is extremely susceptible to physical aging. Despite recent developments in anti-aging polymer membranes, this research breakthrough has yet to be demonstrated on thin PTMSP films supported on porous polymer substrates, a crucial step toward commercializing anti-aging membranes for industrial applications. Here we report the development of scalable, thin film nanocomposite membranes supported on polymer substrates that are resistant to physical aging while having high permeabilities to alcohols. The selective layer is made up of PTMSP and nanoporous polymeric additives. The nanoporous additives provide additional passageways to solvents, enhancing the high permeability of the PTMSP materials further. Through intercalation of polyacetylene chains into the sub-nm pores of organic additives, physical aging in the consequent was significantly hindered in continuous long-term operation. Remarkably we also demonstrate that the additives enhance both membrane permeability and rejection of dissolved contaminants across the membranes, as ethanol permeability at 5.5 × 10 L m m h bar with 93% Rose Bengal (1017.6 g mol) rejection, drastically outperforming commercial and state-of-the-art membranes. These membranes can replace energy-intensive separation processes such as distillation, lowering operation costs in well-established pharmaceutical production processes.
具有高溶剂透过率同时排斥溶解污染物的膜材料对于降低与液体分离相关的能源成本至关重要。然而，目前缺乏稳定的高通量材料，需要创新的工程解决方案，以使用低渗透性的稳定聚合物来生产高性能的薄膜。聚[1-(三甲基甲硅烷基)-1-丙炔]（PTMSP）是渗透性最强的聚合物之一，但极易受到物理老化的影响。尽管在抗老化聚合物膜方面取得了最新进展，但这一研究突破尚未在多孔聚合物基底上支撑的薄 PTMSP 膜上得到证明，这是将抗老化膜商业化用于工业应用的关键一步。在这里，我们报告了在聚合物基底上开发具有抗物理老化能力且对醇具有高透过率的可扩展的薄膜纳米复合材料膜。选择性层由 PTMSP 和纳米多孔聚合物添加剂组成。纳米多孔添加剂为溶剂提供了额外的通道，进一步提高了 PTMSP 材料的高透过率。通过将聚乙炔链插入有机添加剂的亚纳米孔中，连续长期运行中物理老化明显受阻。值得注意的是，我们还证明了添加剂可以同时提高膜的渗透性和对溶解污染物的截留率，例如在 5.5×10 L m m h bar 下，乙醇的透过率为 93%，对玫瑰红（1017.6 g mol）的截留率为 93%，明显优于商业和最先进的膜。这些膜可以替代能耗高的分离过程，如蒸馏，从而降低在成熟的制药生产过程中的运营成本。
