Abstract
New isoporous nanofiltration composite membranes were fabricated by photo-polymerization of thin films of the hexagonal columnar mesophase of the supramolecular complex 43TB. This was followed by deposition on a polyether sulfone macro-porous support and removal of the template molecule. The membranes had an average permeability of 2.3 L m-2 h-1·bar-1 and a sharp molecular weight cut-off of around 5000 g mol-1 based on PEG filtration. The full rejection of Bovine Serum Albumin and Green fluorescence proteins and their flux recovery suggested the absence of defects on the LC layer of the membrane. The filtration of charged molecules presented total rejection for molecules larger than 1000 g mol-1 and a size-charge selectivity with higher rejection for cationic molecules due to ionic interactions with the pore walls. These interactions mean absorption within the membrane, which has an effect on the rejection of neutral solutes such as Riboflavin and PEG 3000, being less relevant for smaller molecules.
Highlights
Water is one of the most important resources to sustain life
The membranes had an average permeability of 2.3 L m-2 h-1⋅bar-1 and a sharp molecular weight cut-off of around 5000 g mol-1 based on Polyethylene glycol (PEG) filtration
Compound 4 was found to be liquid crystalline when visualized under the Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM) at RT with micro-meter sized domains in a typical conic texture for a columnar mesophase (Fig. S6) with a transition peak from isotropic to liquid crystals (LC) at 57 ◦C (ΔH = 3.48 J g-1) in the heating cycle of the Differ ential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) (Fig. S7)
Summary
Water is one of the most important resources to sustain life. Increasing amounts of new emerging micropollutants (MPs) [1], i.e. toxic trace contaminants such as pesticides, plasticizers, pharmaceuti cals, chemicals or hormones are released into the environment, and seriously endanger access to clean water [2]. Water and wastewater treatment are becoming increasingly important. These methods to clean water focus on the removal of undesired species and/or the se lective recovery of valuable components for reuse. Membrane filtration is increasingly adopted for water purification due to its low energy consumption, low footprint and low cost [3]. Among the different types of membranes, especially NF membranes are commonly used for the effective removal of molecular-sized solutes from aqueous streams [7,8,9]. NF selectively separates small solutes from water based on pore sizes in the nm range. The absence of distinct, well defined pores in commercial NF membranes (asymmetric and dense morphology) hampers the strict control over selectivity for the filtration of different solutes
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