Enhancing Sustainable Energy Conversion Efficiency by Incorporating Photoelectric Responsiveness into Multiporous Ionic Membrane.

The evolution of porous membranes has revitalized their potential application in sustainable osmotic-energy conversion. However, the performance of multiporous membranes deviates significantly from the linear extrapolation of single-pore membranes, primarily due to the occurrence of ion-concentration polarization (ICP). This study proposes a robust strategy to overcome this challenge by incorporating photoelectric responsiveness into permselective membranes.

Porous Materials for Water Purification.

Water pollution is a growing threat to humanity due to the pervasiveness of contaminants in water bodies. Significant efforts have been made to separate these hazardous components to purify polluted water through various methods. However, conventional remediation methods suffer from limitations such as low uptake capacity or selectivity, and current water quality standards cannot be met.

Anomalous thermo-osmotic conversion performance of ionic covalent-organic-framework membranes in response to charge variations.

Increasing the charge density of ionic membranes is believed to be beneficial for generating high output osmotic energy. Herein, we systematically investigated how the membrane charge populations affect permselectivity by decoupling their effects from the impact of the pore structure using a multivariate strategy for constructing covalent-organic-framework membranes. The thermo-osmotic energy conversion efficiency is improved by increasing the membrane charge density, affording 210 W m with a temperature gradient of 40 K.

Installation of synergistic binding sites onto porous organic polymers for efficient removal of perfluorooctanoic acid.

Herein, we report a strategy to construct highly efficient perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) adsorbents by installing synergistic electrostatic/hydrophobic sites onto porous organic polymers (POPs). The constructed model material of PAF-1-NDMB (NDMB = N,N-dimethyl-butylamine) demonstrates an exceptionally high PFOA uptake capacity over 2000 mg g, which is 14.8 times enhancement compared with its parent material of PAF-1.

Thermo-Osmotic Energy Conversion Enabled by Covalent-Organic-Framework Membranes with Record Output Power Density.

A vast amount of energy can be extracted from the untapped low-grade heat from sources below 100 °C and the Gibbs free energy from salinity gradients. Therefore, a process for simultaneous and direct conversion of these energies into electricity using permselective membranes was developed in this study. These membranes screen charges of ion flux driven by the combined salinity and temperature gradients to achieve thermo-osmotic energy conversion.

Nanospace Decoration with Uranyl-Specific "Hooks" for Selective Uranium Extraction from Seawater with Ultrahigh Enrichment Index.

Mining uranium from seawater is highly desirable for sustaining the increasing demand for nuclear fuel; however, access to this unparalleled reserve has been limited by competitive adsorption of a wide variety of concentrated competitors, especially vanadium. Herein, we report the creation of a series of uranyl-specific "hooks" and the decoration of them into the nanospace of porous organic polymers to afford uranium nanotraps for seawater uranium extraction. Manipulating the relative distances and angles of amidoxime moieties in the ligands enabled the creation of uranyl-specific "hooks" that feature ultrahigh affinity and selective sequestration of uranium with a distribution coefficient threefold higher compared to that of vanadium, overcoming the long-term challenge of the competing adsorption of vanadium for uranium extraction from seawater.

Imparting Ion Selectivity to Covalent Organic Framework Membranes Using Assembly for Blue Energy Harvesting.

It has long been a challenge to fabricate angstrom-sized functional pores for mimicking the function of biological channels to afford selective transmembrane transport. In this study, we describe a facile strategy to incorporate ionic elements into angstrom-sized channels using encapsulation of charged dye molecules during the interface polymerization of a three-dimensional covalent organic framework (3D COF). We demonstrate that this approach is tailorable as it enables control over both the type and content of the guest and thus allows manipulation of the membrane function.

Covalent organic framework nanofluidic membrane as a platform for highly sensitive bionic thermosensation.

Thermal sensation, which is the conversion of a temperature stimulus into a biological response, is the basis of the fundamental physiological processes that occur ubiquitously in all organisms from bacteria to mammals. Significant efforts have been devoted to fabricating artificial membranes that can mimic the delicate functions of nature; however, the design of a bionic thermometer remains in its infancy. Herein, we report a nanofluidic membrane based on an ionic covalent organic framework (COF) that is capable of intelligently monitoring temperature variations and expressing it in the form of continuous potential differences.