title: One-Step Assembly of Molecular Separation Membranes by Direct Atomizing Oligomers.
abstract: Polymeric membranes are important materials for efficient sieving of targeted components at the molecular level and have made significant advancement in many industrial applications such as biofuel production, water purification, fuel combustion, and carbon dioxide capture. Although their separation efficiencies have been widely investigated, lack of more efficient, greener, and lower-cost membrane fabrication mechanisms is still a major hurdle for mass production, because the conventional membrane-making process is always time-consuming, highly inefficient, and consumes a large amount of organic solvents. Herein we report a one-step assembly concept capable of directly processing low-viscosity oligomers into polymer-based molecular separation membranes in an ultrafast and green manner. This process was implemented by alternate atomizing-depositing of low-viscosity oligomers and reaction auxiliary agents onto a rotating support and followed by an ultrafast interfacial reaction under solvent-free conditions. Without the need for dissolution processing of polymer, solvent evaporation, and any post-treatments, the whole technological process could be accomplished within a few seconds/minutes, which is 2-3 orders of magnitude faster than conventional solution-coating technologies. The universality of this facile approach has also been demonstrated by successfully producing various defect-free polymeric membranes and homodispersed nanohybrid membranes with excellent and stable performance for bioalcohol production and recovery of different trace organics from dilute solutions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Ren
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Linglong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shulan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York , Buffalo, New York 14260-4200, United States.
authors.forename: Haiqing
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8042-154X
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Center for Membrane Technology, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100124, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guojun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: bioalcohol; molecular separation membrane; oligomer; one-step assembly; pervaporation