Reactive Terminators Dual-Tuning Polyamide Structure for High-Performance Nanofiltration Membranes

Abstract

Nanofiltration membranes often limited by permeability–selectivity trade-off. To address this, we incorporated sulfonated additives via terminator-assisted interfacial polymerization, simultaneously tuning pore size, thickness, and surface charge. The resulting membranes exhibit doubled water flux while maintaining >98% Na₂SO₄ rejection, providing a simple and effective strategy to overcome the traditional trade-off.