Mazzaferro Luca, Lounder Samuel J, Asatekin Ayse
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Sep 13;15(36):42557-42567. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c07745. Epub 2023 Sep 1.
The versatility of membranes is limited by the narrow range of material chemistries on the market, which cannot address many relevant separations. Expanding their use requires new membrane materials that can be tuned to address separations by providing the desired selectivity and robustness. Self-assembly is a versatile and scalable approach to create tunable membranes with a narrow pore size distribution. This study reports the first examples of a new class of membrane materials that derives state-of-the-art permeability, selectivity, and fouling resistance from the self-assembly of random polyampholyte amphiphilic copolymers. These membranes feature a network of ionic nanodomains that serve as nanochannels for water permeation, framed by hydrophobic nanodomains that preserve their structural integrity. This copolymer design approach enables precise selectivity control. For example, sodium sulfate rejections can be tuned from 5% to 93% with no significant change in the pore size or fouling resistance. Membranes developed here have potential applications in wastewater treatment and chemical separations.
市场上材料化学种类有限，这限制了膜的多功能性，无法满足许多相关分离需求。要扩大其应用范围，就需要新的膜材料，通过提供所需的选择性和稳定性来实现特定分离。自组装是一种通用且可扩展的方法，可用于制备孔径分布窄的可调谐膜。本研究报告了一类新型膜材料的首个实例，这类材料通过无规聚两性电解质两亲共聚物的自组装获得了先进的渗透性、选择性和抗污染性。这些膜具有离子纳米域网络，作为水渗透的纳米通道，由保持其结构完整性的疏水纳米域构成框架。这种共聚物设计方法能够实现精确的选择性控制。例如，硫酸钠截留率可在5%至93%之间调节，而孔径和抗污染性无显著变化。此处开发的膜在废水处理和化学分离方面具有潜在应用。
