Over 10% of total US energy consumption is used in chemical separation processes. The development of more efficient separation processes through adsorption or membrane separation are highly desired for a sustainable future. It is fundamentally essential to innovate bottom-up chemistry approaches for this goal. Here I present a few examples of ongoing work in my research team. First, we developed a new membrane fabrication method on acid interfaces, which allows for the synthesis of membranes composed of macrocyclic building blocks. The unique chemistry and structure of this membrane allows highly selective separation of small molecules featuring very similar sizes and shapes, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. The second example involves the use of ZnO nanostructures to facilitate photopolymerization for ZnO/polymer composite synthesis, and meanwhile impart high surface roughness for superwettability of the surface. This approach enables large scale, feasible fabrication of composite membranes for highly efficient water/oil separation.

Bottom-up chemistry on polymer composite materials for sustainable chemical separation

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ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.