Nature Communications
·
2025
·Vol. 16
·期 1
·1-13
·
IF 15.7
Pan Zhenxiang,Lei Yalong,Yan Tiange,Zheng Fuxin,Liao Yu,Zhan Jiang,Zhang Tong,Shao Lu,Han Gang
Membrane nanofiltration (NF) has emerged as a prominent technology for efficient separations of ions, but state-of-the-art polyamide (PA) NF membranes are constrained by a pernicious tradeoff between water permeance and selectivity. This work conceives a versatile molecular engineering strategy to simultaneously improve water permeance and co-cation selectivity through molecular construction of cationic triazolyl heterocyclic polyamide (CTHP) nanofilms via scalable interfacial polymerization. Experimental data and molecular simulations reveal that the CTHP structures precisely regulate the subnanometer pore architecture and binding affinity with water and ions, affording advanced size-sieving and Donnan exclusion while facilitating water partitioning and transport. The exemplified PA membrane exhibits ultrahigh divalent cation rejections of over 99% with a 9-fold increase in monovalent/divalent cation sieving selectivity relative to the pristine benchmark, exceptional water permeance, and good fouling resistance. The implemented molecular engineering strategy holds broad prospects for the rational design of high-performance polymeric membranes for sustainable and precision separations.
研究领域:
膜科学
·
材料工程
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化学分离
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纳米技术
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高分子化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
·
2025
·
IF 9
Xuewu Zhu,Wenxin Yan,Hong Peng,Zhe Yang,Zhiwei Zhou,Daoji Wu,Liping Qiu,Daliang Xu,Ning Wang,Feiyong Chen
Regulating the nanofiltration (NF) membrane structure for the simultaneous improvement in permeance and selectivity has attracted extensive attention. In this study, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was integrated in situ into a typical interfacial polymerization (IP) process to modulate the IP reaction precisely and thus modify the microscopic architecture of NF membranes. UV irradiation was capable of activating trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and inducing photothermal effects. The optimized NF membranes presented thinner and rougher surfaces, as well as an increased negative charge and hydrophilicity. Compared with the control NF membrane (NFM-Con), the optimized NFM-UV40 achieved excellent performance, with 35.5 % greater water permeance and 186.6 % greater Cl − /SO 4 2− separation selectivity. Notably, the UV-assisted NF membranes had better anti-fouling properties than those of commercial NF270. This study proposes a novel strategy for the precise in situ regulation of NF membrane structure and performance, enabling the development of high-performance separation membranes for NF-based water desalination.
研究领域:
材料科学
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膜技术
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水处理
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高分子化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
·
2022
·
IF 7.926
Mingxiang Liu,Wei Chen,Jiawei Fu,Anqi Wang,Mingmei Ding,Lei Zhang,Le Han,Li Gao
Emerging contaminants (ECs) in water, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), require more efficient separation technology for water treatment . Although nanofiltration (NF) has exhibited the potential to remove small organic molecules, enhancing water permeance without sacrificing the rejection of the membrane is still a big challenge. Herein, we fabricate a novel thin-film composite (TFC) membrane by introducing a hyaluronic acid (HA) interlayer . The hydrogen bonds between HA and amine monomers depress the mass transfer of piperazine, which is beneficial for constructing a thinner and denser polyamide (PA) layer. As a result, we finally obtained a novel TFC membrane with a PA layer with a more negative surface, reduced thickness, crumpled structure and higher degree of cross-linking. Moreover, the obtained TFC membrane exhibits an excellent water permeance of 29.53 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and high rejection for Na 2 SO 4 (94.90 %) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) (93.4 %). In light of the low cost and ease of performance, our study proposes a new, green strategy for fabricating TFC NF membranes for environmental water treatment that could feasibly be extended to industrial applications.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
·
2020
·
IF 7.183
Jingyuan Guan,Lin Fan,Ya-nan Liu,Benbing Shi,Jinqiu Yuan,Runnan Zhang,Xinda You,Mingrui He,Yanlei Su,Zhongyi Jiang
Nanofiltration membranes featuring excellent separation and antifouling performances are highly desired for applications such as water purification . In this study, inspired by the phenomenon of coordination-driven self-assembly and the structures of aquaporins in nature, an arginine (Arg)-Fe III complex was designed and incorporated into the polyamide layer during interfacial polymerization, endowing the resultant nanofiltration membranes with enhanced water permeance and prominent antifouling performance. Owing to the active amine groups, the Arg-Fe III complex could react with trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and thus act as the aqueous additive in company with piperazine (PIP), which improved the compatibility between the organic phase and aqueous phase. The interfacial channels between the Arg-Fe III complex and the polyamide matrix as well as the hydrogen bonds interaction between water and the Arg-Fe III complex facilitated the rapid water transfer. When the content of the Arg-Fe III complex reached 0.3 g/L, the water permeance was elevated significantly, twice than that of the pristine polyamide membrane. Meanwhile, the rejections for Na 2 SO 4 and dyes were close to those of the pristine polyamide membrane. Furthermore, the resultant membranes displayed exceptional antifouling performance. Introducing the metal-organic complex into the interfacial polymerization process proves an effective and promising attempt to fabricate membranes with high performance for water resource reclamation.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMOSPHERE
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2022
·
IF 8.943
Bin Zhao,Min Sun,Zhiqiang Guo,Liang Wang,Yiran Qian,Xiaojia He,Jixiang Li
Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) have been increasingly detected in drinking water sources, and pose severe threat to human health. Polyamide (PA) based nanofiltration (NF) membrane has great potential for EDCs removal from water, but the removal of hydrophobic EDCs is not satisfying due to strong hydrophobic affinity. In this study, UiO-66-NH 2 /PA membranes were prepared by predepositing hydrophilic UiO-66-NH 2 onto the substrate prior to interfacial polymerization. The UiO-66-NH 2 aggregates increased the permeable area and strengthened the “gutter effect”. Therefore, the pure water flux of UiO-66-NH 2 /PA increased by 115% compared with that of the thin-film composite (TFC) membrane, and its rejection of Na 2 SO 4 was 96%. The hydrophilicity-enhanced PA film reduced its adsorption of EDCs and decreased the driving force for EDCs diffusion. Moreover, the UiO-66-NH 2 -induced hydrophilic nanochannels, including the interfacial gaps between PA film and UiO-66-NH 2 aggregates, the gaps in UiO-66-NH 2 aggregates, and the inherent pores in UiO-66-NH 2 crystals, alleviated the hydrophobic affinity and effectively restricted EDCs diffusion. The rejection rates of methylparaben, propylparaben, bisphenol A, and benzylparaben by the optimal UiO-66-NH 2 /PA were 50%, 67%, 75%, and 85%, respectively, and the water/benzylparaben selectivity was 4.4 times as high as that of TFC. The results demonstrate that incorporating hydrophilic metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can improve the membrane hydrophilicity and create hydrophilic nanochannels, and is an effective strategy to enhance EDCs removal by nanofiltration.
研究领域:
环境科学
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水处理
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材料科学
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
·
2025
·
IF 9
Xuewu Zhu,Feiyue Ge,Liping Qiu,Hong Peng,Fanduo Meng,Langming Bai,Feiyong Chen,Daliang Xu,Daoji Wu,Bin Liu
Nanofiltration (NF) plays a critical role in advanced water treatment; however, the performance of conventional polyamide (PA) membranes is fundamentally limited by the permeance–selectivity trade-off, a consequence of the densely cross-linked network formed via trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and piperazine (PIP) reaction. To address this issue, this study presents a molecular-level engineering approach that redesigns the PA network architecture by employing a competitive interfacial polymerization (IP) process using mixed acyl chloride monomers. Specifically, isophthaloyl chloride (IPC) is introduced as a crosslinking modulator that competitively restrains the over-crosslinking of TMC and acts as a chain extender to enhance the flexibility of the polymer matrix. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the distinct electrostatic potential differences among monomers drive this precise regulation, resulting in a hybrid network with optimized fractional free volume. This rationally tailored structure led to a significant improvement in membrane performance, exhibiting a high pure water permeance of 18.9 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 (2.5 times that of the pristine PA-TMC membrane) without compromising selectivity. Furthermore, the engineered membrane featured a highly electronegative and carboxyl-rich surface, which strengthens membrane–ion interactions via a synergistic surface complexation–charge shielding mechanism, thereby creating elevated ion transport barriers and enabling superior divalent ion separation (e.g., 82.9 % for MgCl 2 and >99.0 % for Na 2 SO 4 ). Efficient removal of both natural organic matter and persistent negatively charged contaminants was achieved, with rejection rates exceeding 95 % for PFOA and reaching 99.5 % for large-molecule PFAS (e.g., PFODA). This study introduces a method to control polymer network formation using competitive reaction kinetics, yielding high-performance separation membranes while enhancing the understanding of the structure-property relationships in PA films for environmental applications.
研究领域:
环境科学
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膜分离技术
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高分子材料
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纳米技术
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水处理
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物理化学
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功能材料
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2026
·
IF 9.1
Yingying Liu,Qiang Zhang,Ni Zhang,Yu Jiang,Meixuan Song,Haifeng Zhang,Xinxia Tian
Sodium p-styrene sulfonate was grafted onto polyamide layer of nanofiltration membranes by UV irradiation. • The modified membrane had higher specific surface area, excellent hydrophilicity and negative surface charge. • The membrane exhibited enlarged pore size and uniform pore distribution. • The membrane improved water permeance (increased by 34.02%) and Cl − /SO 4 2− selectivity simultaneously. • The membrane possessed favorable anti-silica scaling property and robust organic fouling resistance. Conventional polyamide nanofiltration membranes suffer from severe fouling, including organic and silica scaling, and low water permeability. A highly hydrophilic, antifouling layer was constructed by grafting sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SSS) onto the separation layer via UV irradiation. After optimizing SSS dosage and UV grafting time, the modified membrane exhibited enlarged pore size and more uniform pore distribution due to photodegradation and photodecarboxylation induced by UV radiation, as well as a more negative charge and high hydrophilicity due to SSS grafting. Its water flux reached 63.47 L m −2 h −1 , increased by 34.02% compared to the pristine membrane, with Na 2 SO 4 rejection over 95% via synergistic Donnan and size exclusion effects. The membrane exhibited enhanced antifouling performance. The flux decline ratio of modified membrane was only 10.49% and flux recovery ratio reached to 95.34% for bovine serum albumin fouling, while those of virgin membrane was 16.00% and 83.47%, respectively. The two values of modified membrane were 30.87% and 74.11%, respectively for humic acid fouling, while those of original membrane were 45.66% and 60.05%, respectively. Further, the membrane also exhibited excellent silica scaling resistance, the flux decline ratio was only 0.55%. The modified membrane showed stable continue performance and superior acid resistance. Overall, UV-initiated SSS grafting directly functionalizes the membrane separation layer to simultaneously boost water permeability and antifouling capacity, offering a facile and effective strategy for high-performance polyamide NF membranes. Download: Download high-res image (132KB) Download: Download full-size image
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DOI
高影响因子
DESALINATION
·
2026
·
IF 9.9
Ning Ma,Ruirui Jiang,Jielin Shi,Xinwei Kang,Jinyu Li,Feiyue Ge,Feilong Zhang,Feiyong Chen,Daliang Xu,Xuewu Zhu
KMnO 4 pre-oxidation tuned pore size, surface charge, and hydrophilicity of NF270. • Temperature-dependent oxidation increased roughness, added oxygen groups, and decreased PA crosslinking. • The optimized NFM-T50 achieved higher water permeance and moderate Ca 2+ /Mg 2+ passage. • Enhanced hydrophilicity and superior selectivity reduced gypsum scaling and improved flux recovery. Despite ensuring high rejection properties, the dense and highly cross-linked network of polyamide (PA) nanofiltration (NF) membranes limits their ability to selectively distinguish between ions with different charges due to the dominance of physical sieving, resulting in the excessive rejection of minerals beneficial to human health. To overcome this performance limitation, this study proposes a temperature-controlled potassium permanganate (KMnO 4 ) post-treatment strategy. The controlled de-crosslinking of the PA network allows for the simultaneous regulation of the pore size, charge, and hydrophilicity of the membrane. KMnO 4 oxidation selectively attacks amide linkages within the PA matrix, incorporating oxygen-containing functional groups, increasing surface roughness, and reducing crosslink density. Under optimized conditions (50 °C, 5 wt% KMnO 4 , 30 min), the resulting membrane (NFM-T50) exhibits a markedly more negative surface charge and enhanced hydrophilicity. These structural and chemical changes increase pure water permeance to 19.4 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 while sustaining a high Na 2 SO 4 rejection of 93.9% and enabling moderated passage of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ . The reduced divalent cation rejection mitigates gypsum supersaturation at the membrane interface, yielding substantially improved scaling resistance, with flux recovery exceeding 83.0% across repeated fouling-cleaning cycles. Overall, this study demonstrates that moderate KMnO 4 -driven oxidative decrosslinking is a practical and effective approach to simultaneously enhance permeance, selective mineral retention, and anti-scaling performance in commercial PA nanofiltration membranes. Download: Download high-res image (226KB) Download: Download full-size image
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DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2026
·
IF 9.1
Xiaolong Chen,Xin Li,Peijian Zhang,Ying Li,Haiyan Zhu,Gang Shi
Although various strategies have enhanced the chlorine resistance of polyamide (PA) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, they cannot simultaneously ensure excellent water permeance and salt rejection. Here, a novel PA RO membrane with hybrid nanoparticles of amino-functionalized carbon quantum dots and nickel oxide (NH 2 -CQDs/NiO@PA) was designed. The catalytic activity of NiO can efficiently decompose free chlorine in water to enhance the chlorine resistance of the membrane. Meanwhile, the photothermal effect of NH 2 -CQDs can increase the surface temperature of the membrane to reduce water viscosity, thereby improving water permeance. In addition, the amino groups of NH 2 -CQDs can increase the density of the PA structure, thereby ensuring salt rejection of the membrane. Under irradiation, the NH 2 -CQDs/NiO@PA membrane exhibits a pure water permeance of 3.69 ± 0.15 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 and a salt rejection of 98.42 ± 0.50%. The salt rejection of the NH 2 -CQDs/NiO@PA and the pure PA membranes, which were subjected to pressurized chlorination with a cumulative chlorine exposure of 3000 ppm·h, is respectively 93.1 ± 1.09% and 70.5 ± 1.73% under irradiation, indicating that the former has higher chlorine resistance. This study provides a feasible strategy for preparing chlorine-resistant PA RO membranes with excellent water permeance and salt rejection.
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产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
·
2023
·
IF 15.1
Jinglei Liu,Guizheng Zou,Shifeng Hou
In accurately balancing membrane permeability and separation coefficient, effectively preventing membrane collapse in separation process is the core to improve the efficiency of membrane separation for two-dimensional materials. Here, we used L-cysteine (L-Cys) functionalized gold nanoparticles as scaffolds and spacers and fabricated a multi-effect separation membrane with GO nanosheets. The as-prepared membrane performed the following as a separation membrane: (1) As a robust spacer, the gold nanoparticles, prevented the collapse of the GO sheet and thus the membrane showed stability; (2) The existence of amphiphilic L-cysteine enabled the possibility of regulating the GO sheets layer spacing between 16.9 and 17.8 Å by pH, which achieves controllable ultrahigh permeance for size sieving. The maximum permeation rate of the membrane can reach 216.6 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , which is much greater than that of pure GO membrane; (3) Further, we demonstrate the following properties of the as-prepared membranes embedded with amphiphilic chiral gold nanoparticles for the enantiomer separation. The membrane has high enantioselectivity for Pen racemates, and its chiral separation factor and permeation rate can reach 1.83 and 21.7 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , respectively.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
分离技术
·
纳米科技
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
Inorganics
·
2025
·Vol. 13
·期 8
·251
·
IF 3
Chengju Wu,Shouyuan Hu,Shoupeng Li,Hangxiang Zhuge,Liuhua Mu,Jie Jiang,Pei Li,Liang Chen
Membrane separation technology has shown significant potential in the treatment of mixed dye wastewater. In this study, a reduced graphene oxide (AH-rGO) membrane was prepared using an amino-hydrothermal method and applied for the first time in mixed dye separation. These membranes can selectively recover high-value dyes while addressing the technical challenges of balancing permeability and selectivity in traditional membrane materials, which are often at odds with each other in the treatment of mixed dye wastewater. We simulated actual dye wastewater using four dyes: methyl orange (MO), methyl blue (MB), rhodamine B (RB), and Victoria Blue B (VBB). The four combinations of mixed dyes were MO/VBB, RB/VBB, MO/MB, and RB/MB, all of which demonstrated high water permeability and separation efficiency. Notably, the MO/VBB combination achieved a maximum water permeability rate of 118.79 L m−2h−1bar−1and a separation factor of 24.2. The AH-rGO membrane is currently the highest-permeability membrane available, achieving excellent separation results with typical mixed dye wastewater. Additionally, it demonstrates good stability. The experimental results indicate that the overall performance of the AH-rGO membrane is superior to that ofother graphene oxide (GO) membranes, which reveals the significant application potential of this membrane in the field of mixed dye wastewater treatment.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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化学工程
·
纳米技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY
·
2025
·
IF 9
Yanan Ding,Lei Xia,Jianyang Wu,Qiugen Zhang,Qinglin Liu,Aimei Zhu
As an advanced water harvesting technology, nanofiltration can help solve the problem of global water scarcity. Nonetheless, a common “trade-off” effect exists between permeability and selectivity in nanofiltration (NF) membranes, and addressing this trade-off is crucial for advancing NF membrane technology. The introduction of an interlayer to improve the surface properties of the substrate is considered to be a more direct, practical, and effective way to improve membrane performance. A polyamide composite nanofiltration (NF) membrane with superior permeability and selectivity was developed by incorporating a porous organic polymer (POP) interlayer into the substrate via an in situ azo coupling reaction, which enhances the substrate's pore structure. The influence of aromatic diamine monomers with varying chain lengths on the surface properties of interlayers-specifically pore structure, hydrophilicity, and roughness-was examined, along with their impact on the separation capabilities of the NF membranes. Molecular simulation was used to analyze the pore size variation trend of azo-porous polymers (Azo-POPs) with monomer chain length. The optimized TFC-0C-S membrane exhibited a pure water permeance of 44.7 ± 0.5 L m −2 h −1 bar −1 , while demonstrating a Na 2 SO 4 rejection of 97.2 ± 0.2 %. This research offers insights for the meticulous design of the interlayer to enhance the pore structure of NF membranes.
研究领域:
膜科学与技术
·
材料化学
·
环境工程
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水处理技术
·
高分子材料
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分离科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）