Highly permeable and selective membranes are desired for the wide deployment of membrane technology. One strategy would be to cut the separation layer thickness comparable to a molecular interaction length scale. It has been, however, challenging to fabricate such thin films that are several tens of nanometers in thickness, free of defect, inert to membrane swelling, and self-sustaining without using a micrometers-thick porous support. Here, we propose an interfacial polymerization method at the interface of liquid and vapor that forms around a CNT buckypaper (BP) scaffold. Fast vapor diffusion and mechanical robustness of BP allow to form a thin, smooth and freestanding film. The thickness of this polymer-intertwined freestanding BP could be controlled from several tens of nanometers to micrometres. The resultant composite nanofilm shows as high gas selectivity as a corresponding polymer material yet at much enhanced permeance. Interestingly, this composite also shows salt rejection higher than commercial thin-film-composite polyamides while retaining great water permeance. Scalable and swelling-resistant properties of this BP-scaffolded polymer nanofilm can facilitate its deployment in practical environmental applications.<br/>

Self-sustaining polymer nanofilm on a buckypaper scaffold for chemical separations

255th National Meeting (2018)

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