Poly(ionic liquid)‐Armored MXene Membrane: Interlayer Engineering for Facilitated Water Transport

Abstract

Two‐dimensional (2D) MXene‐based lamellar membranes bearing interlayers of tunable hydrophilicity are promising for high‐performance water purification. The current challenge lies in how to engineer the pore wall's surface properties in the subnano‐confinement environment while ensuring its high selectivity. Herein, poly(ionic liquid)s, equipped with readily exchangeable counter anions, succeeded as a hydrophilicity modifier in addressing this issue. Lamellar membranes bearing nanochannels of tailorable hydrophilicity are constructed via assembly of poly(ionic liquid)‐armored MXene nanosheets. By shifting the interlayer galleries from being hydrophilic to more hydrophobic via simple anion exchange, the MXene membrane performs drastically better for both the permeance (by two‐fold improvement) and rejection (≈99 %). This facile method opens up a new avenue for building 2D material‐based membranes of enhancing molecular transport and sieving effect.

MXene/poly(ionic liquid) porous composite membranes for systematized solar-driven interfacial steam generation

“…In order to receive more profound insight in the lamellar structure of MXene nanolayers of composite PIL/MXene porous membranes, the XRD patterns of the pristine MXene and PIL/Mxene 7.5 membranes were compared and the d-spacing (interlayer spacing) was measured (figure 3(c)). The sharp (002) peak located at 5.6 o indicates a d-spacing value of 1.56 nm for the pristine MXene membrane, in close consistence with recent literatures [34][35][36][37]. PIL/Mxene 7.5 with slight expansion of interlayer spacing of MXene to 1.60 nm shows MXene with PIL chains being intercalated in these multilayers.…”

Electrosorption, Desorption, and Oxidation of Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylic Acids (PFCAs) via MXene-Based Electrocatalytic Membranes

“…Moreover, MXenes with −Cl, −Br, −I, −BrI, and −ClBrI terminations exhibited different affinities toward intercalated cations . In environmental applications, MXenes and MXene-based materials have been used as adsorbents − and antibacterial agents , to remove water pollutants and pathogens. MXenes garner strong covalent and electrostatic interactions with many pollutants due to their rich surface functionalities and charged surface.…”

Sub-8 nm networked cage nanofilm with tunable nanofluidic channels for adaptive sieving

“…The calculated value is ~1.2 times higher compared to the membranes carrying Cl − . This result could be attributed to the weak interactions between water molecules and hydrophobic groups around the cage window, which reduces the time required for water molecules to traverse the cage, thereby improving the membrane water permeance 5 , 48 , 49 . To gain further insights, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed using an ~8.0 nm-thick cage nanofilm with different anions (Fig.…”