Interafacially grown ultrathin high flux polymeric nanofilm for molecular separation: An improved trade-off between permeance and selectivity

Fabrication of microporous polyaryl nanofilm at the liquid-liquid interface for selective molecular separation

“…Polymeric membranes with enhanced mass-transport and solute selectivity are highly anticipated for liquid separation, relevant to industrial applications; where mixture of two or more solutes separated from each other. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Unlike conventional separation processes (distillation, evaporation), membrane based liquid separation processes perform separation in liquid phase without changing the phase of desired solutes. Thus, low energy consumption, less carbon footprints, continuous operation, modular design and large-scale applicability make membrane based separation process advantageous over others.…”

“…This has been achieved by enhancing water permeance without altering solute selectivity. For enhancing the water mass-transport, first-hand principles are (i) tailor the polymer chains at molecular scale to offer greater number of interconnected micropores 8 and; (ii) downsizing the thickness of active separating membrane layer in the nanoscale dimensions for lesser resistance 1 , 2 , 9 ; (iii) enhancing the hydrophilicity of the membrane surface 10 ; (iv) tailor-made membrane surface structure. 10 …”