在石油、化工、制药等工业应用中，45-55%的能耗等用于分离过程中。相较于传统分离过程如蒸发、精馏等，膜分离过程更加地节能、环保、高效。但长久以来，对膜分离层厚度以及其孔径的精准调控一直都是个难题。本报告中，通过控制界面聚合过程，膜分离层的厚度被降到10纳米以下，实现了溶剂的通量成数量级地增长。并且，通过对单体进行改性，加入疏水嵌段，让膜由亲水变为疏水，使其在原油分馏中同时达到了高通量和高选择性。另外，通过利用多孔材料（如有机分子笼、大环分子等）构建膜结构，并使之在膜内有序排列，实现了对膜孔径在埃米尺度的精准调控，拓展了膜在精细分离过程（如药物提纯）中的应用。
The chemical separations often account for 45-55% of the total industrial energy consumption in petroleum, chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals and other industrial applications. Compared to conventional separation process (i.e., distillation and rectification), membrane separation process will be more energy-saving, environmental-friendly, and high-efficiency. However, to precisely regulate the thickness and pore size of membranes has long been a great challenge in this field. In this report, the manipulation of the film thickness down to ~10 nanometers achieved permeance one order of magnitude higher than that of current state-of-the-art polyamide membranes while retaining comparable size- and class-based separation. Meanwhile, with the introduction of hydrophobic block, the hydrophilic membrane surface turned into hydrophobic surface, achieving much higher permeance and selectivity in the fractionation of light crude oil. Additionally, the porous material-based building blocks have been applied for the creation of well-defined membrane with aligned pore structure, further realizing the precision separation at the sub-nanometre scale, which expands their potential for application in crude oil fractionation, purification of drugs, etc.
嘉宾介绍
Andrew Livingston
英国皇家科学院院士、英国皇家工程院院士、Queen Mary University of London副校长Andrew Livingston, Male, PhD, Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Fellow of Institute of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE), Vice Principal of Queen Mary University of London. Andrew Livingston gained his PhD degree in Trinity College from University of Cambridge. Then, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London in the UK as a Professor, Head of Department, and Head of Barrer Center. In 2021, he became a Professor and Vice Principal of Queen Mary University of London in the UK. His research interests focus on the design and preparation of novel inorganic/organic membrane materials, membrane mass transfer and membrane process simulation, etc. He has published more than 300 papers in leading international journals, including Nature, Science, Nat. Mater., Nat. Chem., Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., JACS, etc., and more than 30 patents. Andrew Livingston has acquired various honors and awards, including Junior Moulton Medal、Cremer Medal、Warner Medal, Underwood Medal, Silver Medal by Royal Academy of Engineering, etc. Currently, he is an associate editor of J. Membrane Sci., and the academic leader of the New Rosalind Franklin Institute. In 2019, he founded the EXACTMER Ltd. in London, devoted to the creation of discrete monomers and biological macromolecules using membrane technology.