Hyperlooping Carbon Nanotube-Graphene Oxide Nanoarchitectonics as Membranes for Ultrafast Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

Membrane technology is a key enabler for a circular pharmaceutical industry, but chemically resistant polymeric membranes for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) often suffer from sheets open up new avenues for high-performance OSN, but their permeance toward high viscosity solvents is below expectation. To address this issue, we design hyperlooping channels using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) intercalated within lanthanum(III) (La3+)-cross-linked SFGO nanochannels to form a ternary nanoarchitecture for low-resistant transport toward high viscosity solvents. At optimized MWCNT loading, the defect-free membrane exhibits 138 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1) ethanol permeance at > 99% rejections toward organic dyes, outperforming state-of the-art graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes to date. Even butanol-with twice the viscosity of ethanol-exhibits a permeance no less than 60 L m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1) at comparable rejection rates. Theoretical simulation suggests that La3+ crosslinking is critical and can create an intact architecture that brings size exclusion into play as the dominant separation mechanism. Also, MWCNT nanochannel offers at least 1.5-fold lower ethanol transport resistance than that of the GO nanochannel, owing to greater bulk freedom in orientating ethanol molecules. Overall, the hyperlooping architecture demonstrates similar to 3-fold higher permeance than neat SFGO membrane for elevating OSN performances.

Automated summary

Membrane technology plays a crucial role in the circular pharmaceutical industry, but organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) often faces issues with chemically resistant polymeric membranes. To overcome this, a ternary nanoarchitecture was created using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) intercalated within lanthanum(III) (La3+)-cross-linked SFGO nanochannels to enhance the transport of high viscosity solvents. The resulting membrane demonstrated significantly higher permeance compared to state-of-the-art graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes, even for solvents with higher viscosity. The hyperlooping architecture achieved improved OSN performances, providing potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry.