Precise nanofiltration in a fouling-resistant self-assembled membrane with water-continuous transport pathways.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31448326.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aav9308 and PMC identifier 6688870.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Self-assembled materials are attractive for next-generation membranes. However, the need to align self-assembled nanostructures (e.g. cylinders, lamellae) and the narrow stability windows for ordered bicontinuous systems present serious challenges. We propose and demonstrate a novel approach that circumvents these challenges by exploiting size-selective transport in the water-continuous medium of a nanostructured polymer templated from a self-assembled lyotropic H<sub>1</sub> mesophase. Optimization of the mesophase composition enables high-fidelity retention of the H<sub>1</sub> structure on photoinduced cross-linking. The resulting material is a mechanically robust nanostructured polymer possessing internally and externally cross-linked nanofibrils surrounded by a continuous aqueous medium. Fabricated membranes show size selectivity at the 1- to 2-nm length scale and water permeabilities of ~10 liters m<sup>-2</sup> hour<sup>-1</sup> bar<sup>-1</sup> μm. Moreover, the membranes display excellent antimicrobial properties due to the quaternary ammonium groups on the nanofibril surfaces. These results represent a breakthrough for the potential use of polymerized lyotropic mesophase membranes in practical water purification applications.