Double-imprinted mixed matrix membranes with polydopamine-induced nanocomposite for selective recognition and separation applications

Herein, according to the polydopamine (PDA)-based imprinting and thermal-induced imprinting methods, we reported on the development and applications of double-layer-imprinted mixed matrix membranes (DI-MMMs) through a dual-imprinted strategy, thereinto, the tetracycline (TC), one of the pollution-intensive pharmaceutical and personal care products, was chosen as template molecule. As to the first-TC-imprinted layer, the blended PDA-based TC-imprinted activated carbon (AC) and SiO2 were both used for the preparation of membrane. Next, κ-carrageenan-modified graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets would be regarded as the surface-loaded layer to support the thermal-induced imprinting synthesis (second-TC-imprinted layer). Importantly, high adsorption capacity at around at 106.44 mg/g and fast adsorption rate (within 60 min) had been successfully obtained. Importantly, permselectivity rates (β) of our imprinting membranes were obtained as 3.60, 3.33 and 3.51, respectively. Overall, based the practical selective separation and scalability analysis, we believed that the as-prepared DI-MMMs with high-intensitive recognizability and permeability of template molecule would provide a possibility for breaking the permeability-selectivity trade-off of molecularly imprinted membrane materials.