Improvements in energy-water systems will necessitate fabrication of high-performance separation membranes. To this end, interface engineering is a powerful tool for tailoring properties, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) has recently emerged as a promising and versatile approach. However, most non-polar polymeric membranes are not amenable to ALD processing due to the absence of nucleation sites. Here, a sensitization strategy for ALD-coating is presented, illustrated by membrane interface hydrophilization. Facile dip-coating with polyphenols effectively sensitizes hydrophobic polymer membranes to TiO2 ALD coating. Tannic acid-sensitized ALD-coated membranes exhibit outstanding underwater crude oil repulsion and rigorous mechanical stability through bending and rinsing tests. As a result, these membranes demonstrate outstanding crude oil-in-water separation and reusability compared to untreated membranes or those treated with ALD without polyphenol pretreatment. A possible polyphenol-sensitized ALD mechanism is proposed involving initial island nucleation followed by film intergrowth. This polyphenol sensitization strategy enriches the functionalization toolbox in material science, interface engineering, and environmental science.
@article{osti_1633727,
author = {Yang, Xiaobin and Sun, Pan and Zhang, Huiru and Xia, Zijing and Waldman, Ruben Z. and Mane, Anil U. and Elam, Jeffrey W. and Shao, Lu and Darling, Seth B.},
title = {Polyphenol-Sensitized Atomic Layer Deposition for Membrane Interface Hydrophilization},
annote = {Improvements in energy-water systems will necessitate fabrication of high-performance separation membranes. To this end, interface engineering is a powerful tool for tailoring properties, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) has recently emerged as a promising and versatile approach. However, most non-polar polymeric membranes are not amenable to ALD processing due to the absence of nucleation sites. Here, a sensitization strategy for ALD-coating is presented, illustrated by membrane interface hydrophilization. Facile dip-coating with polyphenols effectively sensitizes hydrophobic polymer membranes to TiO2 ALD coating. Tannic acid-sensitized ALD-coated membranes exhibit outstanding underwater crude oil repulsion and rigorous mechanical stability through bending and rinsing tests. As a result, these membranes demonstrate outstanding crude oil-in-water separation and reusability compared to untreated membranes or those treated with ALD without polyphenol pretreatment. A possible polyphenol-sensitized ALD mechanism is proposed involving initial island nucleation followed by film intergrowth. This polyphenol sensitization strategy enriches the functionalization toolbox in material science, interface engineering, and environmental science.},
doi = {10.1002/adfm.201910062},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1633727},
journal = {Advanced Functional Materials},
issn = {ISSN 1616-301X},
number = {15},
volume = {30},
place = {United States},
publisher = {Wiley},
year = {2020},
month = {02}}
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)