Zhou Huimin, Zhang Xingran, Li Zhouyan, Qiu Zhiwei, Yang Zhe, Dai Ruobin, Wang Zhiwei
State Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
College of Resources and Environmental Science, South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan, 430074, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 2;16(1):6102. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61488-5.
Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane separation is vital for the advanced removal of contaminants, playing a key role in safe water supply. However, existing RO membranes fall remarkably short in adequate removal of small neutral organic contaminants (SNOCs ≤150 Da), due to the structural heterogeneity and nanosized defects of polyamide (PA) rejection layers. To address these challenges, we propose creating a continuous solid-phase interface using amphiphilic Cd/L-cysteine nanowires that spontaneously self-assemble at the water/n-hexane interface, thereby enabling precise control of the PA structure and suppressed formation of nanosized defects. The self-assembled Cd/L-cysteine interface facilitates the shuttling of m-phenylenediamine (MPD) monomers, achieving MPD pre-enrichment in the organic phase and leading to the formation of an ultraselective PA layer for the RO membrane, with an outstanding SNOC removal rate of up to 97.9%. Furthermore, the gutter effect and enhanced surface area ratio of the PA layer, induced by the Cd/L-cysteine interface, contribute to a remarkable increase in water permeance-upgraded by a factor of 4.5, reaching 3.6 ± 0.1 L m h bar. This effectively breaks the trade-off between SNOC removal and water permeance. This work opens an appealing avenue for developing highly permeable and selective RO membranes for efficient water reuse.
反渗透（RO）膜分离对于深度去除污染物至关重要，在安全供水方面发挥着关键作用。然而，由于聚酰胺（PA）截留层的结构异质性和纳米级缺陷，现有的RO膜在充分去除小的中性有机污染物（SNOCs≤150Da）方面存在显著不足。为应对这些挑战，我们提出使用两亲性Cd/L-半胱氨酸纳米线在水/正己烷界面自发自组装形成连续的固相界面，从而实现对PA结构的精确控制并抑制纳米级缺陷的形成。自组装的Cd/L-半胱氨酸界面促进了间苯二胺（MPD）单体的穿梭，实现了MPD在有机相中的预富集，并导致形成用于RO膜的超选择性PA层，其对SNOC的去除率高达97.9%，表现出色。此外，由Cd/L-半胱氨酸界面诱导的PA层的沟槽效应和表面积比的增加，使得水通量显著提高——提高了4.5倍，达到3.6±0.1L m h bar。这有效地打破了SNOC去除与水通量之间的权衡。这项工作为开发用于高效水回用的高渗透性和选择性RO膜开辟了一条有吸引力的途径。
