Towards sustainable ultrafast molecular-separation membranes: From conventional polymers to emerging materials

Abstract

Ultrafast molecular separation (UMS) membranes are highly selective towards active organic molecules such as antibiotics, amino acids and proteins that are 0.5-5 nm wide while lacking a phase transition and requiring a low energy input to achieve high speed separation. These advantages are the keys for deploying UMS membranes in a plethora of industries, including petrochemical, food, pharmaceutical, and water treatment industries, especially for dilute system separations. Most recently, advanced nanotechnology and cutting-edge nanomaterials have been combined with membrane separation technologies to generate tremendous potential for accelerating the development of UMS membranes. It is therefore critical to update the broader scientific community on the important advances in this exciting, interdisciplinary field. This review emphasizes the unique separation capabilities of UMS membranes, theories underpinning UMS membranes, traditional polymeric materials and nanomaterials emerging on the horizon for advanced UMS membrane fabrication and technical

Micro‐Phase Separation within Epoxy Resin Yields Ultrathin Mesoporous Membranes with Increased Scalability by Conversion from Spin‐ to Dip‐Coating Process

“…Especially in bioseparations, ultrathin films occupy a unique position as highly permeable and selective membranes which could revolutionize the industry but have yet to deliver on this potential at industrial scale. High permeation rates and enhanced selectivity have been demonstrated numerous times, often orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional separation membranes ideally leading to significantly enhanced performance . Such nanomembranes have been developed with different features that grant permeability such as slits, tortuous channels, or conical pores although cylindrical pores are most common .…”

“…High permeation rates and enhanced selectivity have been demonstrated numerous times, often orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional separation membranes ideally leading to significantly enhanced performance . Such nanomembranes have been developed with different features that grant permeability such as slits, tortuous channels, or conical pores although cylindrical pores are most common . Nevertheless, in contrast to macroscopic scale, introducing pores of desired size and geometry on nanometer scale is not trivial.…”

“…This, however, requires the separation layer to be stable with as little support as possible making mechanical strength a key parameter to ultimately decrease mass transfer resistance of the whole separation device. Thus, in the development of new separation materials, not only low mass transfer resistance but also increased mechanical and chemical robustness should be strived for …”

Novel synthesis of high‐molecular‐weight prepolymer of poly(p‐phenylene benzoxazole) in ionic liquids

“…Specifically, ILs can be used as solvents of condensation polymerization . 1,3‐Dialkylimidazolium ILs are very promising compounds as alternatives to conventional solvents and have been used widely in various synthesis fields with stable performance . In this work, using 1,3‐dialkylimidazolium ILs as the reaction solvents, high‐molecular‐weight PBO prepolymer was synthesized by DADHB and TPC.…”

Introducing advanced composites and hybrid materials

“…The large specific surface area and unique physicochemical properties of nanofillers allow flexible design of nanocomposites with unprecedented functionalities. It is expected that research in nanocomposites will keep its energetic momentum in the next few decades since there are still a lot of challenges that need to be addressed with combined research efforts [8][9][10][11][12]. The integration of different constituents into one unit does not simply generate a mixed property, but also creates some new physicochemical properties that were not present in the individual components.…”