Abstract

Mimicking the efficient facilitated transport features of carrier proteins in cytomembranes, constructing facilitated transport pathways in synthetic membranes to achieve the desired performance for task-specific molecules has become attractive. Herein, heterostructured laminates (UGO) were created through in-situ growth of amine-functionalized zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (UiO) on graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, and subsequently used as supports to immobilize Ag+. The as-prepared Ag+@UGO were incorporated into poly (ether-block-amide) (Pebax) matrix to fabricate facilitated transport membranes for pervaporative desulfurization. Densely packed UiO on GO nanosheets increase the inter-particles connectivity of the molecular transport channels and reduce the mass transport resistance, intensifying the permeability. Meanwhile, the uniform immobilization of Ag+ can reversibly interact with thiophene via π-complexation reaction and form continuous facilitated transport pathways, significantly enhancing the selectivity. Accordingly, the resultant membrane acquires separation performance with an optimum permeation flux of 23.40 kg/(m2 h) and enrichment factor of 7.12, achieving 52% and 57% higher than the pristine membrane. This study extends strategies to design high-performance hybrid membranes with facilitated transport mechanism through the well-designed heterostructures as supports to immobilize carriers for molecular separations.

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