Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Polymer Heterostructure Membranes Enabling Unidirectional Ion Transport

Objetivo

Current separation technology is crucial for many aspects of human life and accounts for ~15% of the world’s energy consumption. While the particle flow through separation columns is directional at the atomistic scale, undirected Brownian motion dominates in state-of-the-art membranes. 2D membranes have the potential to overcome this intrinsic deficiency and shift the paradigm of particle transport from disordered Brownian motion to unidirectional flow.
We will develop unprecedented 2D polymer heterostructure membranes (2DHMs) combined with functionalized graphene. They offer ultimate thinness (leading to shortest diffusion lengths), precision pore geometry/size (resulting in high size-selectivity, even for hydrogen isotopes), and high functionality (fostering chemical/charge selectivity and ionic gating), making them ideal membrane materials to realize selective and unidirectional ion transport. We will combine our complementary expertise in theory and prediction, chemical design, and on-water/liquid surface synthesis, as well as in-situ ion transport investigations to develop robust 2DHMs.
We will synthesize 2DHMs in the form of horizontal and vertical heterostructures, for which reliable structure-property correlations will be established. We will take advantage of lattice vibrations, nuclear quantum, and electrochemical effects, and consequently reformulate classical diffusion theory to consider these game changers. As a result, we will achieve innovative 2DHMs for selective proton and ion transport with high permeance, laying the foundations for the next-generation membrane technologies.
2DPolymembrane will unlock the unique opportunities of 2DHMs for innovative energy device integrations (proton/aqueous metal batteries, fuel cells, and reverse osmotic power generators), where the merits of ultrathin precision 2DHMs will result in the highest selectivity and highest particle flow, and thus a fundamental device performance beyond the state-of-art.