Abstract
Separation of mixed ion, especially Cl- and SO42-, is essential for
reduced energy consumption and achievement of the minimal or zero-liquid
discharge. Membrane technology has attracted significant attention in
this respect owing to its good system coupling and maturity. However, it
remains challenging to fabricate highly selective nanofilm with
fine-tuning pore and structure that is suitable for the separation of
Cl- and SO42-. Herein, we report an asymmetric alicyclic polyamide
nanofilm with enhanced interconnectivity pore by manipulating the
molecular geometry structure, composed of the porous aromatic polyamide
dendrimer layer, and the dense alicyclic polyamide layer with hollow
stripes. This resulted membrane shows a 107.14% separation rate of Cl-
and SO42-, and a water flux (for Na2SO4) of ~2.2 times
that of the pristine polyamide membrane. We estimate this fine-tuning
pore approach resulting from alicyclic structure also might be employed
in other separation membranes such as gas, solvent or neutral molecules.