Volume 61, Issue 31 e202205481
Research Article

Electrostatic-Induced Crystal-Rearrangement of Porous Organic Cage Membrane for CO2 Capture

Kai Qu

Kai Qu

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Jipeng Xu

Jipeng Xu

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Liheng Dai

Liheng Dai

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Yixing Wang

Yixing Wang

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Hongyan Cao

Hongyan Cao

State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing, 211816 China

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Dezhu Zhang

Dezhu Zhang

State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing, 211816 China

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Yulin Wu

Yulin Wu

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Weiyi Xu

Weiyi Xu

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Dr. Kang Huang

Corresponding Author

Dr. Kang Huang

State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing, 211816 China

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Prof. Cheng Lian

Prof. Cheng Lian

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Prof. Xuhong Guo

Prof. Xuhong Guo

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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Prof. Wanqin Jin

Corresponding Author

Prof. Wanqin Jin

State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 Puzhu South Road, Nanjing, 211816 China

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Prof. Zhi Xu

Corresponding Author

Prof. Zhi Xu

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, No.130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237 China

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First published: 30 May 2022
Citations: 39

Graphical Abstract

Competitive CO2 capture in a porous organic cage membrane can be assisted by ionic liquid molecules (e.g., BMIMBF4). Ionic liquid molecules electrostatically induce the crystal-rearrangement of cage molecules to construct regular nanochannels as well as aiding in situ nanochannel regulation.

Abstract

Porous Organic Cages (POCs) with tunable tailoring chemistry properties and polymer-like processing conditions are of great potential for molecular selective membranes, but it remains challenging in the assembly of high crystalline POCs with regular nanochannels for effective molecular sieving. Here we report an electrostatic-induced crystal-rearrangement strategy for the design of a POC membrane with heterostructure. Due to electrostatic attraction, ionic liquid molecules induced cage molecules to rearrange into a sub-10 nm uniform and defect-free crystal layer, which displayed competitive CO2 separation performance. The optimized hetero-structured membrane exhibited an attractive CO2/N2 separation selectivity of over 130, which was superior to the state-of-the-art membranes, accompanied with excellent long-term and thermal shock stability. This strategy provides a new inspiration for the preparation of crystal-rearranged membranes with regular channels for gas molecule sieving.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Supporting Information of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.