A high-flux organic solvent nanofiltration membrane with binaphthol-based rigid-flexible microporous structures. Issue 11 (24th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fu, Wenming; Zhang, Wei; Chen, Haonan; Li, Shao-Lu; Shi, Wenxiong; Hu, Yunxia
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 9:Issue 11(2021)
• Page Start: 7180
• Page End: 7189
• Publication Date: 2021-02-24
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/d0ta10632a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : A binaphthol-based microporous polymer membrane with high microporosity exhibits excellent OSN performance. Abstract : Highly permeable organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes are desired to be used in an efficient and energy-saving chemical separation process. Herein, we fabricated a high-flux OSN membrane by synthesizing 7, 7′-dihydroxy-2, 2′-binaphthol (7, 7′-OH-BINOL) as an aqueous phase monomer to react with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) via interfacial polymerization. The unique structures of 7, 7′-OH-BINOL having a rotatable highly kinked unit and a rigid binaphthol ring endow the fabricated polyarylate membrane with very high microporosity and super-high Young's modulus. Both simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the BINOL-based polyarylate (PAR-BINOL) membrane has two types of micropores including cross-linked pores and stacked pores. Our results find that the PAR-BINOL membrane exhibits very high solvent permeance over a wide range of solvents with diverse polarity, and also possesses a long-term stable separation performance in solvents. Impressively, the membrane solvent permeance can reach up to 28.7 L m −2 h −1 bar −1, 9.2 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and 6.7 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 for acetone, methanol, and dimethylformamide (DMF), respectively. The rejection of tetracycline (TC, M w = 444 g mol −1 ) is 98.2%. Our work provides some insights into the molecular engineering of monomers with unique contorted and rigid structures for the fabrication of highly permeable OSN membranes.