Chen Xiaofang, Qin Yao, Zhu Yudan, Pan Xueling, Wang Yuqi, Ma Hongyu, Wang Ruoxin, Easton Christopher D, Chen Yu, Tang Cheng, Du Aijun, Huang Aisheng, Xie Zongli, Zhang Xiwang, Simon George P, Banaszak Holl Mark M, Lu Xiaohua, Novoselov Kostya, Wang Huanting
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
State Key Laboratory of Molecular & Process Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Sci Adv. 2024 Apr 26;10(17):eadl1455. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl1455.
Nanosheet-based membranes have shown enormous potential for energy-efficient molecular transport and separation applications, but designing these membranes for specific separations remains a great challenge due to the lack of good understanding of fluid transport mechanisms in complex nanochannels. We synthesized reduced MXene/graphene hetero-channel membranes with sub-1-nm pores for experimental measurements and theoretical modeling of their structures and fluid transport rates. Our experiments showed that upon complete rejection of salt and organic dyes, these membranes with subnanometer channels exhibit remarkably high solvent fluxes, and their solvent transport behavior is very different from their homo-structured counterparts. We proposed a subcontinuum flow model that enables accurate prediction of solvent flux in sub-1-nm slit-pore membranes by building a direct relationship between the solvent molecule-channel wall interaction and flux from the confined physical properties of a liquid and the structural parameters of the membranes. This work provides a basis for the rational design of nanosheet-based membranes for advanced separation and emerging nanofluidics.
基于纳米片的膜在节能分子传输和分离应用中显示出巨大潜力，但由于对复杂纳米通道中流体传输机制缺乏深入了解，设计用于特定分离的此类膜仍然是一项巨大挑战。我们合成了具有亚1纳米孔隙的还原型MXene/石墨烯异质通道膜，用于对其结构和流体传输速率进行实验测量和理论建模。我们的实验表明，在完全截留盐和有机染料的情况下，这些具有亚纳米通道的膜表现出极高的溶剂通量，并且它们的溶剂传输行为与其同结构对应物有很大不同。我们提出了一个亚连续流模型，通过建立溶剂分子与通道壁相互作用和通量之间的直接关系，该模型能够根据液体的受限物理性质和膜的结构参数，准确预测亚1纳米狭缝孔膜中的溶剂通量。这项工作为合理设计用于先进分离和新兴纳米流体学的基于纳米片的膜提供了基础。
