Fabrication of Coffee-Ring Nanostructured Membranes for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) plays important roles in pharmaceutical ingredients purification and solvent recovery. However, the low organic solvent permeance under cross-flow operation of OSN membrane hampers their industrial applications. Herein, we report the construction of coffee-ring structured membrane featuring high OSN permeance. A water-insoluble crystal monomer that dissolved in EtOH/H2O mixed solvent was designed to react with trimesoyl chloride via interfacial polymerization. Owing to the diffusion of EtOH to n-hexane, coffee-ring nanostructure on the support membrane appeared, which served as the template for construction of coffee-ring structured membrane. The optimal nanostructured membrane demonstrated 2.6-fold enhancement in the effective surface area with reduced membrane thickness. Resultantly, the membrane afforded a 2.7-fold enhancement in organic solvent permeance, e.g., similar to 13 LMH/bar for MeOH, without sacrificing the rejection ability. Moreover, due to the rigid monomer structure, the fabricated membrane shows distinctive running stability in active pharmaceutical ingredients purification and the ability for concentration of medicines.