Self-assembled, robust titanate nanoribbon membranes for highly efficient nanosolid capture and molecule discrimination

Abstract

Supersaturation-directing self-assembly strategy for growing titanate nanoribbon membrane with capabilities of nanosolid capture and small molecule discrimination is reported. Owing to the distinct morphology of the nanoribbons and the accurate self-assembly process, the resulting membrane possesses outstanding mechanical properties (rupture strength exceeding 10 kg) and surprisingly high porosity (∼97%), although there are no strong bonds among the nanoribbons. On the basis of the robustness of the membrane, we fabricated a column-shaped filter apparatus where the membrane acted as self-standing permeation barrier to evaluate its permeability and practical uses as molecule filter and nanosolid filter. The test of the membrane with pure water reveals that the membrane possesses a fast permeability while consumes very low energy due to the significantly high porosity. The test of the membrane with 13 nm Au solution and yellow-emitting CdTe QDs reveals that both the nanosolids are completely removed from the solution, indicating the membrane is an efficient nanosolid filter. The high efficiency is because the membrane is free of deficiencies and the flat and broad surfaces of the nanoribbons are ideal permeation barriers. The test of the membrane with charged molecules reveals that cationic species and anionic species are discriminated and at the same time the cationic species are enriched on the membrane, which indicate that the membrane is an ideal molecule filter too. The present work should provide a significant step forward to bringing macroscopic architectures assembled by 1D nanostructure much closer to real-world applications involving isolation and enrichment of biomolecules, catalyst reclamation, environmental remediation, and water purification. More broadly, through the on-demand capture of tiny nanosolids with optical, electrical, magnetic, and/or catalytic functionality, it is able to design and construct novel macroscopic nanocomposites readily; this will extend the applications of the titanate nanoribbon membrane beyond separation to the areas of photoelectrochemical devices, chemical sensors, catalysis, plasmonics, and so on.