The production of chemicals, fuels, and sustainable energy often involves the separation of organic liquid mixtures, which is traditionally performed by thermally driven processes such as distillation. Membrane-based organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) can be more energy-efficient, and it relies on the development of robust membranes that are capable of separating organic liquid mixtures and scalable for industrial application. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a class of porous materials that possess ordered two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) structures, tunable pore size and functionality, and excellent chemical stability, making them promising materials for OSN membranes. Herein, we report the synthesis of β-ketoenamine 2D COF and imine-linked 3D COF membranes via a scalable, on-surface interfacial synthesis approach. Continuous thin-film COF membranes with controllable thickness can be directly formed on a variety of supports (ceramic or polymeric) in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Although the resultant membranes appear to be amorphous, they have demonstrated interesting OSN performances, including solvent permeances above 50 L/(m2.h.bar), molecular weight cutoff in the range of 500-1000 g/mol, and good solvent stability. Detailed membrane structure characteristics, their correlations with key synthetic parameters, solvent transport and solute rejection mechanisms will also be discussed.

Covalent organic framework membranes made by interfacial synthesis for organic solvent nanofiltration

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ACS Fall 2022

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