Development of ultrathin polyamide nanofilm with enhanced inner-pore interconnectivity via graphene quantum dots-assembly intercalation for high-performance organic solvent nanofiltration

In this study, a high-performance organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membrane is engineered via nanoscale aminated graphene quantum dots (GQD_NH2)-mediated interfacial polymerization. The GQD_NH2, featuring favorable amine monomers, can atomically regulate the diffusion rate at interface, yielding nanofilms with controllable thickness (decreasing from 200 to 100 nm). Furthermore, zero-dimensional GQD_NH2 serve as nanospacers increase inner-pore interconnectivity loose internal architecture, while preserving narrow free volume distribution covalent interactions rubbery polymeric matrix. An improvement in separation property achieved, where best-performing GQD_NH2@PA thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) reaches magnitude of 2.6-fold higher than that pristine polyamide (PA) without significantly compromising its rejection toward solvation macro/micromolecules solutes, exhibiting high permeances for mild solvents (such 11.1 L m?2 h?1·bar?1 methanol) and aggressive 5.9 dimethylformamide), performing competitive perm-selectivity among state-of-the-art OSN membranes. long-term operations (140 h) demonstrated excellent stability We herein report development TFN thin architecture highly efficient solvent-based process.