Tunable membranes incorporating artificial water channels for high-performance brackish/low-salinity water reverse osmosis desalination

Significance Inspired by biological models, artificial water channels can be used to overcome the permeability/selectivity trade-off of traditional desalination membranes. We demonstrate that rational incorporation of I-quartet artificial water channels in composite polyamide membranes synthesized via interfacial polymerization, provides defect-free biomimetic membranes with intrinsic water-to-salt permeability on the operational brackish-water reverse osmosis (BWRO)/tap water reverse osmosis (TWRO) desalination pressure and medium/low-salinity conditions.