Microporous polyarylate membranes based on 3D phenolphthalein for molecular sieving.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39121217.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.ado7687 and PMC identifier 11313862.
- 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
Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes have gradually replaced some traditional technologies in the extraction, separation, and concentration of high value-added pharmaceutical ingredients due to their controllable microstructure. Nevertheless, devising solvent-stable, scalable TFC membranes with high permeance and efficient molecule selectivity is urgently needed to improve the separation efficiency in the separation process. Here, we propose phenolphthalein, a commercial acid-base indicator, as an economical monomer for optimizing the micropore structure of selective layers with thickness down to 30 nanometers formed by in situ interfacial reactions. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the polyarylate membranes prepared using three-dimensional phenolphthalein monomers exhibit tunable microporosity and higher pore interconnectivity. Moreover, the TFC membranes show a high methanol permeance (9.9 ± 0.1 liters per square meter per hour per bar) and small molecular weight cutoff (≈289 daltons) for organic micropollutants in organic solvent systems. The polyarylate membranes exhibit higher mechanical strength (2.4 versus 0.8 gigapascals) compared to the traditional polyamide membrane.