Issue 14, 2022

Bioinspired photo-responsive membrane enhanced with “light-cleaning” feature for controlled molecule release

Abstract

Inspired by the stomatal feature of plant leaves, a photo-responsive membrane was developed to enhance the removal of irreversible membrane fouling and to control molecule release. Photo-responsive polymers were prepared by reacting the amine group of 4-amineazobenzene with about 3, 5 and 9 out of 12 carboxylic groups of PMAA which was grafted from P(VDF-CTFE) with a certain length. Subsequently, high-flux photo-responsive membranes (PRMs) were prepared from the heterogeneous polymers with different contents of photo-switchable azobenzene following a non-solvent-induced phase-inversion protocol. The pore size and surface hydrophilicity of PRMs could be reversibly increased by switching visible light to UV irradiation, which dramatically enhanced the backflushing efficiency on PRMs under UV irradiation. The “light-cleaning” process could recover more than 90% of the irreversible flux decline caused by typical organic foulant (BSA) and biological foulant (E. coli) on PRMs. The higher the content of azobenzene, the more obvious the pore size and hydrophilicity variation after light switching but the smaller the absolute pore size observed for PRMs. On the other hand, the light-switching gates of PRMs enabled the controlled release of molecules with different sizes. The novel PRM provided an efficient solution to mitigate irreversible membrane fouling and a light-triggered molecule release protocol, which would improve the membrane performance and further expand the application field of the membrane.

Graphical abstract: Bioinspired photo-responsive membrane enhanced with “light-cleaning” feature for controlled molecule release

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 окт 2021
Accepted
23 дек 2021
First published
23 дек 2021

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022,10, 2617-2627

Bioinspired photo-responsive membrane enhanced with “light-cleaning” feature for controlled molecule release

Q. Ye, R. Wang, S. Yan, B. Chen and X. Zhu, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2022, 10, 2617 DOI: 10.1039/D1TB02329B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements