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Interfacially stable MOF nanosheet membrane with tailored nanochannels for ultrafast and thermo-responsive nanofiltration

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Abstract

Two-dimensional nanosheet membranes with responsive nanochannels are appealing for controlled mass transfer/separation, but limited by everchanging thicknesses arising from unstable interfaces. Herein, an interfacially stable, thermo-responsive nanosheet membrane is assembled from twin-chain stabilized metal-organic framework (MOF) nanosheets, which function via two cyclic amide-bearing polymers, thermo-responsive poly(N-vinyl caprolactam) (PVCL) for adjusting channel size, and non-responsive polyvinylpyrrolidone for supporting constant interlayer distance. Owing to the microporosity of MOF nanosheets and controllable interface wettability, the hybrid membrane demonstrates both superior separation performance and stable thermo-responsiveness. Scattering and correlation spectroscopic analyses further corroborate the respective roles of the two polymers and reveal the microenvironment changes of nanochannels are motivated by the dehydration of PVCL chains.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21991123, 51733003, 21674025, and 51873035), and “Qimingxing” project (No. 19QA1400200) of the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology. The authors also thank the staff from BL16B Beamline at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility for the assistance during data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Center for Advanced Low-dimension Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Wei Jia, Shengtong Sun & Peiyi Wu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 2205 Songhu Road, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wei Jia & Peiyi Wu

  3. Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Baohu Wu

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  1. Wei Jia
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Correspondence to Shengtong Sun or Peiyi Wu.

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Interfacially stable MOF nanosheet membrane with tailored nanochannels for ultrafast and thermo-responsive nanofiltration

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Jia, W., Wu, B., Sun, S. et al. Interfacially stable MOF nanosheet membrane with tailored nanochannels for ultrafast and thermo-responsive nanofiltration. Nano Res. 13, 2973–2978 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2959-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2959-6

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