Secondary growth of bi-layered covalent organic framework nanofilms with offset channels for desalination

Abstract

Processing two-dimensional (2D) covalent organic frameworks (COFs) into nanofilms has gained widespread attention in water treatment. However, the designed synthesis of COF-based membranes for ion separations still remains a huge challenge though the strategies to produce COF molecular separation membranes have been greatly developed. Herein, we report the construction of bi-layered COF nanofilms for efficient desalination through a simple yet effective secondary growth. The suggested strategy is capable of easily regulating the growth of another COF layer on the pre-synthesized first layer, thus producing crystalline and defect-free bi-layered COF nanofilms with distinct laminated structures. Most importantly, the offset channels are involved at the interface of two nanofilms obtained from the first and secondary growth, which leads to a constricted effective aperture that significantly enhances the ion separation performance. Specifically, the bi-layered COF nanofilms composited with macroporous supports exhibit high rejection rates (~95.8%) to Na2SO4, observably surpassing the desalination performance of single-layered COF nanofilms (rejection<10%). This work not only develops an ingenious way to fabricate COF-on-COF nanofilms with narrowed channels by tailoring the laminated structure of 2D COFs at the film interface, but also starts an avenue for the adoption of COF platforms for membrane separations with an improved precision.