Abstract
The efficient extraction of sodium (Na<sup>+</sup>) and lithium (Li<sup>+</sup>) from seawater and salt lakes is increasingly demanding due to their great application value in chemical industries. However, coexisting cations such as divalent calcium (Ca<sup>2+</sup>) and magnesium (Mg<sup>2+</sup>) ions are at the subnanometer scale in diameter, similar to target monovalent ions, making ion separation a great challenge. Here, we propose a simple and fast secondary growth method for the preparation of MIL-53(Al)-NH<sub>2</sub> membranes on the surface of anodic aluminum oxide. Such membranes contain angstrom-scale (~7 Å) channels for the entrance of small monovalent ions and water molecules, endowing the selectivities for monovalent cations over divalent cations and water over salt molecules. The resulting high-connectivity MIL-53(Al)-NH<sub>2</sub> membranes exhibit excellent ion separation performance (a selectivity of 121.42 for Na<sup>+</sup>/Ca<sup>2+</sup> and 93.81 for Li<sup>+</sup>/Mg<sup>2+</sup>) and desalination performance (a water/salt selectivity of up to 5196). This work highlights metal-organic framework membranes as potential candidates for realizing ion separation and desalination in liquid treatment.
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