Polyarylate membrane constructed from porous organic cage for high-performance organic solvent nanofiltration

Preparation of highly permeable and selective organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes is desired for precise chemical separations. Although the emerging nanomaterials and novel preparation methods have significantly boosted the membrane performance, it still requires much effort to drive them toward scale-up production with lower cost and easier preparation process. Herein, we constructed a polyarylate membrane from one kind of porous organic cage, namely Noria through traditional interfacial polymerization technique. Under the catalysis of triethylamine, Noria in aqueous phase would react with terephthaloyl chloride (TPC) in hexane to form a dense nano-film. The inner cavity of Noria molecule provided nano-channel for both polar and non-polar solvents to transport through the membrane. Specially, the Noria + TPC membrane exhibits a high permeance for methanol up to 18 L m−2h−1bar−1. This is resulted from the low interaction energy between methanol and Noria as revealed by the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In addition to the excellent performance, the simple preparation process with low-cost materials suggests the great potential of Noria + TPC membrane for practical application. Moreover, it would inspire the exploration of other molecules with tailored chemical structures for the assembly of high-performance membranes in future. [Display omitted] •The OSN membrane was synthesized via interfacial polymerization of a porous organic cage with acyl chloride.•The molecular cavity of Noria provided nano-channel for the transport of both polar and non-polar solvents.•The MD simulation revealed the mechanism for the high permeance of methanol.