Chiral Covalent Organic Framework Packed Nanochannel Membrane for Enantioseparation

Abstract A nanochannel membrane has the prospect of large‐scale separation. However, selectivity in enantioseparation is a challenge, due to the size difference between nanochannels and enantiomers. Here, we compartmented nanochannels by the in situ synthesis of a L‐tyrosine functionalized covalent organic framework (L‐Tyr‐COF). The L‐Tyr‐COF decreased the pore size of channels to match with naproxen enantiomers (S/R‐NPX) and improved the enantioselective gating. In contrast to the surface‐functionalized nanochannels (L‐Tyr channel), the L‐Tyr‐COF packed nanochannels (L‐Tyr‐COF channel) exhibited high enantioselectivity for S‐NPX and realized the enantioseparation with the enantiomer excess value up to 94.2 %. The separation flux through the highly porous L‐Tyr‐COF channel was 1.33 mmol m −2 h −1 . This study provided a size‐matching strategy and the chiral covalent organic framework packed nanochannel membrane to realize enantioseparation with high selectivity and flux.