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Water-Assisted Programmable Assembly of Flexible and Self-Standing Janus Membranes.

Qun YiMingyue QiuXiaoyu SunHaonan WuYi HuangHongxue XuTielin WangWilliam NimmoTian TangLijuan ShiHongbo Zeng
Published in: Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) (2023)
Janus membranes with asymmetric wettability have been considered cutting-edge for energy/environmental-sustainable applications like water/fog harvester, breathable skin, and smart sensor; however, technical challenges in fabrication and accurate regulation of asymmetric wettability limit their development. Herein, by using water-assisted hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) assembly of small molecules at water/oil interface, a facile strategy is proposed for one-step fabrication of membranes with well-regulable asymmetric wettability. Asymmetric orderly patterns, beneficial for mass transport based on abundant high-permeability sites and large surface area, are constructed on opposite membrane surfaces. Upon tuning water-assisted H-bonding via H-sites/configuration design and temperature/pH modulation, double-hydrophobic, double-hydrophilic, and hydrophobic-hydrophilic membranes are facilely fabricated. The Janus membranes show smart vapor-responsive curling and unidirectional water transport with promising flux of 1158±25 L m -2  h -1 under natural gravity and 31500±670 L·(m -2  h -1  bar -1 ) at negative pressure. This bottom-up approach offers a feasible-to-scalable avenue to precise-manipulation of Janus membranes for advanced applications, providing an effective pathway for developing tailor-made self-assembled nanomaterials.
Keyphrases
  • high resolution
  • ionic liquid
  • escherichia coli
  • quantum dots
  • fatty acid
  • reduced graphene oxide
  • solid phase extraction
  • simultaneous determination