Wang Yuecheng, Ban Yujie, Hu Ziyi, Yang Weishen
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, P. R. China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
Sci Adv. 2024 Aug 2;10(31):eado7331. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado7331. Epub 2024 Jul 31.
Dewatering of aqueous azeotropes is crucial and pervasive in raw chemical refineries and solvent recovery in the chemical industry but is recognized as one of the most energy-intensive processes. Pervaporation using crystalline molecular sieve membranes provides an energy-efficient solution, but stress loads stemming from thermal and mechanical risks of pervaporation are most likely to cause membrane cracks, which greatly reduces reliability of membranes in real-world applications. Here, we propose adaptive healing of stress-induced dynamic cracks (AHSDC) in the membrane in a risk-responding manner before separation by using in situ-formed nanoparticles in the same chemical environment. These nanoparticles naturally filled in fissure gaps once cracks formed in the membrane, forming adaptive healing zones. Without loss of dewatering capacity, the separation durability of the membrane after AHSDC was improved by at least two orders of magnitude. The membrane also exhibited tolerance to industrial-grade azeotropes that epitomize industrial multisource nature and complexity.
在化工原料精炼厂中，水共沸物的脱水至关重要且普遍存在，同时在化学工业的溶剂回收中也是如此，但它被认为是最耗能的过程之一。使用结晶分子筛膜的渗透汽化提供了一种节能解决方案，然而，渗透汽化过程中的热风险和机械风险所产生的应力负荷很可能导致膜破裂，这极大地降低了膜在实际应用中的可靠性。在此，我们提出在分离之前，通过在相同化学环境中利用原位形成的纳米颗粒，以风险响应的方式对膜中应力诱导的动态裂纹进行自适应修复（AHSDC）。一旦膜中形成裂纹，这些纳米颗粒会自然填充到裂缝间隙中，形成自适应修复区。在不损失脱水能力的情况下，AHSDC处理后膜的分离耐久性提高了至少两个数量级。该膜还表现出对具有工业多源性质和复杂性典型特征的工业级共沸物的耐受性。
