MOFs and COFs based pervaporation membranes for alcohols/water separation: A review

High-performance pervaporation membrane has great application and development potential in alcohol/water separation industry due to its high efficiency and economy. It is an important pathway to alleviate the fossil energy crisis and obtain various alcohols scientifically. As a new type of porous crystal material, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with controllable pore structure and rich chemical functions are promising for constructing high-performance alcohol/water separation membranes for future manufacturing development. There are different types of MOFs and COFs based pervaporation membranes, including MOFs polycrystalline membranes, MOFs based mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), COFs continuous membranes, and COFs based MMMs. In this review, we firstly discuss the classification of membranes, describe the process mechanism and evaluation indicators of pervaporation, select decisive criterions for MOFs and COFs, summary the preparation strategies and separation performance of these four membranes, and discuss in detail the impact of operating conditions. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of these four kinds of membranes are summarized, the challenges faced are identified, and the future development direction is pointed out, aiming to provide slight guidance for the design and development of high-performance MOFs and COFs based membranes for alcohol/water separation in the future.