Alkadiyne–Pyrene Conjugated Frameworks with Surface Exclusion Effect for Ultrafast Seawater Desalination

Abstract

Billions of populations are suffering from the supply−demand imbalance of clean water, resulting in a global sustainability crisis. Membrane desalination is a promising method to produce fresh water from saline waters. However, conventional membranes often encounter challenges related to low water permeation, negatively impacting energy efficiency and water productivity. Herein, we achieve ultrafast desalination over the newly developed alkadiyne−pyrene conjugated frameworks membrane supported on a porous copper hollow fiber. With membrane distillation, the membrane exhibits nearly complete NaCl rejection (>99.9%) and ultrahigh fluxes (∼500 L m −2 h −1 ) from the seawater salinity-level NaCl solutions, which surpass the commercial polymeric membranes with at least 1 order of magnitude higher permeability. Experimental and theoretical investigations suggest that the large aspect ratio of membrane pores and the high evaporation area contribute to the high flux, and the graphene-like hydrophobic surface of conjugated frameworks exhibits complete salt exclusion. The simulations also confirm that the intraplanar pores of frameworks are impermeable for water and ions.

The Influence of Light‐Generated Radicals for Highly Efficient Solar‐Thermal Conversion in an Ultra‐Stable 2D Metal‐Organic Assembly

“…As a promising way to obtain fresh water, seawater desalination has attracted great attention due to its abundant reserves and environmental friendliness. [10][11][12] Various seawater evaporators based on advanced photothermal materials such as carbon-based materials, [13,14] metals, [15,16] metal oxides/ carbides, [17][18][19] polymers, [20,21] and coordination polymers (CPs) [22,23] have been studied. To achieve highly efficient photothermal conversion, the extensive photoabsorption, photoinduced electron vibration and photoelectric effect of the materials are keys but highly challenging to be optimized simultaneously in one system.…”

The Influence of Light‐Generated Radicals for Highly Efficient Solar‐Thermal Conversion in an Ultra‐Stable 2D Metal‐Organic Assembly

“…As a promising way to obtain fresh water, seawater desalination has attracted great attention due to its abundant reserves and environmental friendliness. [10][11][12] Various seawater evaporators based on advanced photothermal materials such as carbon-based materials, [13,14] metals, [15,16] metal oxides/ carbides, [17][18][19] polymers, [20,21] and coordination polymers (CPs) [22,23] have been studied. To achieve highly efficient photothermal conversion, the extensive photoabsorption, photoinduced electron vibration and photoelectric effect of the materials are keys but highly challenging to be optimized simultaneously in one system.…”