Regulating ion affinity and dehydration of metal-organic framework sub-nanochannels for high-precision ion separation

Abstract Membrane consisting of ordered sub-nanochannels has been pursued in ion separation technology to achieve applications including desalination, environment management, and energy conversion. However, high-precision ion separation has not yet been achieved owing to the lack of deep understanding of ion transport mechanism in confined environments. Biological ion channels can conduct ions with ultrahigh permeability and selectivity, which is inseparable from the important role of channel size and “ion-channel” interaction. Here, inspired by the biological systems, we report the high-precision separation of monovalent and divalent cations in functionalized metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22204071, 2017YFA0700500, ZYJH004, 22074061
• GO
  Government of Jiangsu Province
• NU
  Nanjing University

  Award: ZYJH004