Ultrafast ion sieving using nanoporous polymeric membranes.

ABSTRACT: The great potential of nanoporous membranes for water filtration and chemical separation has been challenged by the trade-off between selectivity and permeability. Here we report on nanoporous polymer membranes with an excellent balance between selectivity and permeability of ions. Our membranes are fabricated by irradiating 2-μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate Lumirror® films with GeV heavy ions followed by ultraviolet exposure. These membranes show a high transport rate of K⁺ ions of up to 14 mol h^-1 m^-2 and a selectivity of alkali metal ions over heavy metal ions of >500. Combining transport experiments and molecular dynamics simulations with a polymeric nanopore model, we demonstrate that the high permeability is attributable to the presence of nanopor

SUBMITTER: Wang P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5805712 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature