Facile pore size tuning and characterization of nanoporous ceramic membranes for the purification of polysaccharide

Carbon-doped metal oxide interfacial nanofilms for ultrafast and precise separation of molecules

Membranes with molecular-sized, high-density nanopores, which are stable under industrially relevant conditions, are needed to decrease energy consumption for separations. Interfacial polymerization has demonstrated its potential for large-scale production of organic membranes, such as polyamide desalination membranes. We report an analogous ultrafast interfacial process to generate inorganic, nanoporous carbon-doped metal oxide (CDTO) nanofilms for precise molecular separation. For a given pore size, these nanofilms have 2 to 10 times higher pore density (assuming the same tortuosity) than reported and commercial organic solvent nanofiltration membranes, yielding ultra-high solvent permeance, even if they are thicker. Owing to exceptional mechanical, chemical, and thermal stabilities, CDTO nanofilms with designable, rigid nanopores exhibited long-term stable and efficient organic separation under harsh conditions.

Surface Mineralization of the TiO2-SiO2/PES Composite Membrane with Outstanding Separation Property via Facile Vapor-Ventilated In Situ Chemical Deposition

Conventional polymeric membranes are broadly employed in water treatment processes; however, most of them suffer from relatively low water permeance and severe membrane fouling phenomena owing to their relatively hydrophobic nature. In this work, a novel class of inorganic-organic composite membranes was developed through a newly developed vapor-ventilated in situ chemical deposition method, where the Ti and Si precursors were first hydrolyzed and then conferred into metal oxides to form a continuous TiO₂-SiO₂ modification layer. Owing to the distinct physicochemical properties, the Ti and Si precursors were leveraged as quasi-molecular regulators to tune the membrane surface chemistry and pore aperture (within the nanoscale) to benefit highly efficient water purification by underpinning the rapid transport of water molecules and featuring an excellent fouling-resistant and fouling-releasing property against typical pollutants. The as-developed TiO₂-SiO₂/PES composite membrane showed a high water permeance of 187.4 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1, together with a relatively small mean pore aperture of 4.2 nm, showing an outstanding permeating efficiency among state-of-the-art membranes with a similar separation accuracy. This study provides a paradigm shift in membrane materials that could open avenues for developing high-performance inorganic-organic composite membranes for complex wastewater treatment.

Effect of Polysaccharide Conformation on Ultrafiltration Separation Performance

The manifold array of saccharide linkages leads to a great variety of polysaccharide architectures, comprising three conformations in aqueous solution: compact sphere, random coil, and rigid rod. This conformational variation limits the suitability of the commonly applied molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) as selection criteria for polysaccharide ultrafiltration membranes, as it is based on globular marker proteins with narrow M_w and hydrodynamic volume relation. Here we show the effect of conformation on ultrafiltration performance using randomly coiled pullulan and rigid rod-like scleroglucan as model polysaccharides for membrane rejection and molecular weight distribution. Ultrafiltration with a 10 kDa polyethersulfone membrane yielded significant different recoveries for pullulan and scleroglucan showing 1% and 71%, respectively. We found deviations greater than 77-fold between nominal MWCO and apparent M_w of pullulan and scleroglucan, while recovering over 90% polysaccharide with unchanged M_w. We anticipate our work as starting point towards an optimized membrane selection for polysaccharide applications.