Universal and tunable liquid–liquid separation by nanoparticle-embedded gating membranes based on a self-defined interfacial parameter

Abstract

Superwetting porous membranes with tunable liquid repellency are highly desirable in broad domains including scientific research, chemical industry, and environmental protection. Such membranes should allow for controllable droplet bouncing or spreading, which is difficult to achieve for low surface energy organic liquids (OLs). Here we develop an interfacial physical parameter to regulate the OL wettability of nanoparticle-embedded membranes by structuring synergistic layers with reconfigurable surface energy components. Under the tunable solid-liquid interaction in the aggregation-induced process, the membranes demonstrate positive/negative liquid gating regularity for polar protic liquids, polar aprotic liquids, and nonpolar liquids. Such a membrane can be employed as self-adaptive gating for various immiscible liquid mixtures with superior separation efficiency and permeation flux, even afford successive achievement of high-performance in situ extraction-back extraction coupling. This study should provide distinctive insights into intrinsic wetting behaviors and have pioneered a rational strategy to design high-performance separation materials for diverse applications.

Gradient monolayered porous membrane for liquid manipulation: from fabrication to application

“…107–111 Gating is a promising application as a method of simple operation with high stability. 112–114 The synergy between the inherent property (surface wettability and geometry) and external fields (thermal, stretch, electric and magnetic field, etc. ) enables dynamically adjustable selective liquid penetration and separation.…”

Designing organic solvent separation membranes: polymers, porous structures, 2D materials, and their combinations

“…Porous fillers with desirable pore size and porosity can be incorporated into polymers to form MMMs to fine-tune the free volumes and separation properties without significantly sacrificing mechanical properties and processability. 147 These fillers can be multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), 153,154 graphene oxides (GO), 114 silanes, 85 molybdenum disulphide, 149 boron nitride, 150 metal oxide, 160,237 MOFs, [238][239][240][241] cyclodextrins, 242 and zeolites. 243,244 Moreover, porous organic cages (POC) and CMPs have recently emerged.…”

Recent Aspects in Membrane Separation for Oil/Water Emulsion

“…Originally, permeate flux and rejection are in contrary action and often demand efforts in modeling and optimization. [198] When governing pore radius and pore density as pore radius decreases, then face pore density increases, the optimal permeate flux with oil rejection is reached. Controlling the solvent/non-solvent de-mixing rate can fulfill this target.…”