Scalable weaving of resilient membranes with on-demand superwettability for high-performance nanoemulsion separations.
Sci Adv
; 10(26): eadn3289, 2024 Jun 28.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38924410
ABSTRACT
This study leverages the ancient craft of weaving to prepare membranes that can effectively treat oil/water mixtures, specifically challenging nanoemulsions. Drawing inspiration from the core-shell architecture of spider silk, we have engineered fibers, the fundamental building blocks for weaving membranes, that feature a mechanically robust core for tight weaving, coupled with a CO2-responsive shell that allows for on-demand wettability adjustments. Tightly weaving these fibers produces membranes with ideal pores, achieving over 99.6% separation efficiency for nanoemulsions with droplets as small as 20 nm. They offer high flux rates, on-demand self-cleaning, and can switch between sieving oil and water nanodroplets through simple CO2/N2 stimulation. Moreover, weaving can produce sufficiently large membranes (4800 cm2) to assemble a module that exhibits long-term stability and performance, surpassing state-of-the-art technologies for nanoemulsion separations, thus making industrial application a practical reality.
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1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Sci Adv
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article