Biomineralization-Inspired Synthesis of Hybrid COF Nanosheets toward Efficient Desalination Membranes

Junyi Zhao; Yuhan Wang; Zhiming Zhang; Ziting Zhu; Shichen Zeng; Guangzhaoyao Yang; Sui Zhang; Fusheng Pan; Zhongyi Jiang

doi:10.1002/smll.202310566

Biomineralization-Inspired Synthesis of Hybrid COF Nanosheets toward Efficient Desalination Membranes

Small. 2024 Jan 28:e2310566. doi: 10.1002/smll.202310566. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Junyi Zhao^{1

2}, Yuhan Wang³, Zhiming Zhang², Ziting Zhu³, Shichen Zeng³, Guangzhaoyao Yang³, Sui Zhang², Fusheng Pan^{3

4}, Zhongyi Jiang^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University, International Campus of Tianjin University, Binhai New City, Fuzhou, 350207, China.
² Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
³ Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, China.

PMID: 38282104
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202310566

Abstract

Synthesis of covalent organic framework nanosheets (CONs) with high aspect ratio is crucial to their assembly into advanced membranes. Nonetheless, the π-π stacking between covalent organic framework (COF) layers often leads to thick CONs. Herein, inspired by biomineralization process, a series of aspect ratio CONs >15 000 is synthesized by multifunctional polyelectrolytes which not only provide the nucleation sites for pre-assembly with COF monomer, but also suppress π-π interaction for anisotropic growth through protonation. The membrane assembled from CONs exhibited water permeance of 341 kg m^-2 h^-1 and salt rejection of 99.5% in desalination, outperforming ever-reported membranes. This method establishes a platform for the synthesis of crystalline nanosheets.

Keywords: biomineralization method; covalent organic frameworks; hybrid nanosheets; pervaporation desalination membranes.

Abstract

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