Novel designed TFC membrane based on host-guest interaction for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN)

Abstract

Active layers with outstanding organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) performances were designed novelly by adopting host-guest (HG) interaction to realize adamantane structure immobilization. During the fabrication process, β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) served as the “host” while adamantylamine/adamantanemethylamine (AMA/AMmA) worked as the “guest”. Stechiometrical experiment results demonstrated that one half molar ratio of the “guest” to the “host” molecular (1.0%, w/v) led to the best OSN performance. The successful immobilization of adamantane structure was verified by XPS, FT-IR and EDX results, and the adamantane immobilized membrane showed weakened “nodule-like” pattern and reduced surface roughness values compared with the control membrane. Acetone, for the first time, was proposed as the activation solvent for enhancement of OSN performance. After acetone activation, the morphology and topography of the adamantane immobilized membranes seldom changed but their pure methanol (MeOH) flux were quintupled (29.0 ± 2.6 L m−2 h−1) and the rose bengal (RB) removed from MeOH reached to 98.2 ± 0.1%. Those HG complexes also resulted in the reduction of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) values from 466.6 Da to 436.9 and 428.4 Da of PCA101/2+ and PCAm101/2+, respectively. Besides, the PCAm101/2+ demonstrated excellent OSN performances in the long-term operation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) concentration of clarithromycin (CLA)/acetone.