Insights into ion imprinted membrane with a delayed permeation mechanism for enhancing Cd2+ selective separation

Ion imprinted polymers exhibit great potential in ion separation from wastewater. However, the difficulty of ion separation by membrane is proverbial, which severely restricts the application of membrane in metal resource recovery from industrial wastewater. Herein, a rational molecular-level design approaches for membrane fabrication was developed to modify a layer of ion imprinted polymer onto the PVDF membrane. Batch rebind and permeation experiments suggest that specific host-guest binding sites had been fabricated along the membrane pore in ion imprinted membranes (IIM). A higher monomer dose leads to a higher rejection of Cd2+, and the more bind sites in IIM. The binding of IIM to Cd2+ was 1.84 times that of non-ion imprinted membranes (NIM). Permselectivity factors (gamma) of IIM are larger than 5.39 in mixture ions solutions. Chemical characterization and density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveal that the Cd2+ recognition sites of functional groups are C-S and C=S. Cd2+ mass transport in IIM suggest that the imprint effects provide a binding force that would delay Cd2+ to permeate through IIM, so as to selectively separate Cd2+ with other ions. The imprint effects may enlighten a novel molecular-level design approaches for membrane fabrication to enhance the selectivity of ionion.

Automated summary

A membrane fabrication method utilizing ion imprinted polymers on PVDF membrane was developed to enhance the selective separation of Cd2+ ions, showing promising results in batch rebind and permeation experiments. The specific binding sites in the ion imprinted membranes improved the rejection of Cd2+ ions and showed higher permselectivity factors compared to non-ion imprinted membranes. Chemical characterization and DFT calculation revealed the Cd2+ recognition sites on the functional groups of the ion imprinted membranes.