Electropolymerization of robust conjugated microporous polymer membranes for rapid solvent transport and narrow molecular sieving.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33087722.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-19182-1 and PMC identifier 7578036.
- 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
Pore size uniformity is one of the most critical parameters in determining membrane separation performance. Recently, a novel type of conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) has shown uniform pore size and high porosity. However, their brittle nature has prevented them from preparing robust membranes. Inspired by the skin-core architecture of spider silk that offers both high strength and high ductility, herein we report an electropolymerization process to prepare a CMP membrane from a rigid carbazole monomer, 2,2',7,7'-tetra(carbazol-9-yl)-9,9'-spirobifluorene, inside a robust carbon nanotube scaffold. The obtained membranes showed superior mechanical strength and ductility, high surface area, and uniform pore size of approximately 1 nm. The superfast solvent transport and excellent molecular sieving well surpass the performance of most reported polymer membranes. Our method makes it possible to use rigid CMPs membranes in pressure-driven membrane processes, providing potential applications for this important category of polymer materials.