TY - JOUR
T1 - Electropolymerization of robust conjugated microporous polymer membranes for rapid solvent transport and narrow molecular sieving
AU - Zhou, Zongyao
AU - Li, Xiang
AU - Guo, Dong
AU - Shinde, Digambar
AU - Lu, Dongwei
AU - Chen, Long
AU - Liu, Xiaowei
AU - Cao, Li
AU - Aboalsaud, Ammar M.
AU - Hu, Yunxia
AU - Lai, Zhiping
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-23
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): URF/1/3769-01, BAS/1/1375-01
Acknowledgements: The project was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology under the competitive research grant URF/1/3769-01 and Baseline fund BAS/1/1375-01.
PY - 2020/10/21
Y1 - 2020/10/21
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665653
UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19182-1
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-19182-1
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-19182-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 33087722
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
ER -