Solid-Vapor Interface Engineered Covalent Organic Framework Membranes for Molecular Separation

Niaz Ali Khan; Runnan Zhang; Hong Wu; Jianliang Shen; Jinqiu Yuan; Chunyang Fan; Li Cao; Mark A Olson; Zhongyi Jiang

doi:10.1021/jacs.0c04589

Solid-Vapor Interface Engineered Covalent Organic Framework Membranes for Molecular Separation

J Am Chem Soc. 2020 Aug 5;142(31):13450-13458. doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c04589. Epub 2020 Jul 21.

Authors

Niaz Ali Khan^{1

2

3}, Runnan Zhang^{1

2}, Hong Wu^{1

2

4}, Jianliang Shen^{1

2}, Jinqiu Yuan^{1

2}, Chunyang Fan^{1

2}, Li Cao^{1

2}, Mark A Olson^{5

6}, Zhongyi Jiang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.
³ Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120, Pakistan.
⁴ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Desalination Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.
⁵ School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P. R. China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.

PMID: 32649828
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c04589

Abstract

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with intrinsic, tunable, and uniform pores are potent building blocks for separation membranes, yet poor processing ability and long processing time remain grand challenges. Herein, we report an engineered solid-vapor interface to fabricate a highly crystalline two-dimensional COF membrane with a thickness of 120 nm in 9 h, which is 8 times faster than that in the reported literature. Due to the ultrathin nature and ordered pores, the membrane exhibited an ultrahigh permeance (water, ∼411 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1 and acetonitrile, ∼583 L m^-2 h^-1 bar^-1) and excellent rejection of dye molecules larger than 1.4 nm (>98%). The membrane exhibited long-term operation which confirmed its outstanding stability. Our solid-vapor interfacial polymerization method may evolve into a generic platform to fabricate COFs and other organic framework membranes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't