Miscible organic liquid separation of superwetting membrane driven by synergistic polar/nonpolar interactions

Membrane-based technologies for separation of miscible liquid mixtures have been developed as potential alternatives to energy-intensive distillation. However, these separation modalities suffer drawbacks of needing thermal phase-change processes, exhibiting low flux, or utilizing complicated membrane preparation procedures. Here, we develop a polar/nonpolar interaction-induced superwetting membrane system to separate miscible organic liquid mixtures in an energy-saving and high-flux manner. The relatively polar (or nonpolar) target liquid component can rapidly permeate the porous membrane and be selectively separated by interacting with the polar (or nonpolar) porous membrane. Meanwhile, the other relatively nonpolar (polar) liquid component is being blocked through an additive inductive agent dragging it by forming strong nonpolar (or polar) interactions. With this newly developed system, we can successfully realize the separation of miscible organic liquid mixtures with a wide range of polarity. This research points toward new ways of developing the superwetting membrane-based technologies for miscible liquid mixture separation.