MOF-Mediated Interfacial Polymerization to Fabricate Polyamide Membranes with a Homogeneous Nanoscale Striped Turing Structure for CO/CH Separation.

Control of the surface morphology of polyamide membranes fabricated by interfacial polymerization is of great importance in dictating the separation performance. Herein, polyamide membranes with a specific nanoscale striped Turing structure are generated through facile addition of Zr-based metal-organic framework UiO-66-NH in the aqueous triethylenetetramine phase. Interestingly, accompanied by the degradation of UiO-66-NH in aqueous solution, an intermediate complex is in situ formed through the strong interaction between the Zr metal center and the amine group from triethylenetetramine, which can lower amine diffusion and induce a local interfacial reaction, contributing to the generation of a homogeneous nanoscale striped Turing structure. The resulting membranes are used for CO/CH gas separation. Compared with the parent polyamide membrane displaying a CO/CH selectivity of 43.1 and a CO permeance of 31.5 GPU, the membrane with 0.02 wt % of UiO-66-NH introduced into the aqueous phase shows a higher CO/CH selectivity of 58.3, along with a CO permeance of 27.1 GPU. Additionally, when 0.1 wt % of UiO-66-NH is incorporated into the aqueous phase, the membrane exhibits a combination of a higher CO/CH selectivity and an enhanced CO permeance in contrast with the parent polyamide membrane.