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Superfast Water Transport Zwitterionic Polymeric Nanofluidic Membrane Reinforced by Metal–Organic Frameworks
Author(s) -
Ji YanLi,
Gu BingXin,
Xie ShiJie,
Yin MingJie,
Qian WeiJie,
Zhao Qiang,
Hung WeiSong,
Lee KueirRarn,
Zhou Yong,
An QuanFu,
Gao CongJie
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.202102292
Subject(s) - nanofluidics , materials science , membrane , polymer , nanotechnology , nanofiltration , nanoparticle , molecular dynamics , chemical engineering , chemistry , composite material , computational chemistry , biochemistry , engineering
Nanofluidics derived from low‐dimensional nanosheets and protein nanochannels are crucial for advanced catalysis, sensing, and separation. However, polymer nanofluidics is halted by complicated preparation and miniaturized sizes. This work reports the bottom‐up synthesis of modular nanofluidics by confined growth of ultrathin metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in a polymer membrane consisting of zwitterionic dopamine nanoparticles (ZNPs). The confined growth of the MOFs on the ZNPs reduces the chain entanglement between the ZNPs, leading to stiff interfacial channels enhancing the nanofluidic transport of water molecules through the membrane. As such, the water permeability and solute selectivity of MOF@ZNPM are one magnitude improved, leading to a record‐high performance among all polymer nanofiltration membranes. Both the experimental work and the molecular dynamics simulations confirm that the water transport is shifted from high‐friction‐resistance conventional viscous flow to ultrafast nanofluidic flow as a result of rigid and continuous nanochannels in MOF@ZNPM.