Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Porous Fullerene Membranes for Ultimate Organic Solvent Separation

Two-dimensional (2D) materials with high chemical stability have attracted intensive interest in membrane design for the separation of organic solvents. As a novel 2D material, polymeric fullerenes (C-60)(infinity) with distinctive properties are very promising for the development of innovative membranes. In this work, we report the construction of a 2D (C-60)(infinity) nanosheet membrane for organic solvent separation. The pathways of the (C-60)(infinity) nanosheet membrane are constructed by sub-1-nm lateral channels and nanoscale in-plane pores created by the depolymerization of the (C-60)(infinity) nanosheets. Attributing to ordered and shortened transport pathways, the ultrathin porous (C-60)(infinity) membrane is superior in organic solvent separation. The hexane, acetone, and methanol fluxes are up to 1146.3 +/- 53, 900.4 +/- 41, and 879.5 +/- 42 kg & sdot; m(-2) & sdot; h(-1), respectively, which are up to 130 times higher than those of the state-of-the-art membranes with similar dye rejection. Our findings demonstrate the prospect of 2D (C-60)(infinity) as a promising nanofiltration membrane in the separation of organic solvents from macromolecular compounds such as dyes, drugs, hormones, etc.