(463f) Membranes with Porous Organic Cages for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

Porous organic cages (POCs) are individual molecules that are porous and soluble in certain organic solvents. Compared to their extended framework counterparts, such as zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), POCs offer the advantage of solution processability. Moreover, when fabricated into mixed matrix membranes, the soluble POC molecules have the potential to exhibit molecular-level intimate mixing with matrix polymer. In this work, we fabricated mixed matrix membranes with vertex functionalized amorphous scrambled porous organic cages (ASPOCs). The distribution of ASPOCs bearing different crystallization tendencies within a polymer matrix are probed using Raman imaging and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping. The performance of the mixed matrix membranes in organic solvent nanofiltration were tested using poly(styrene) oligomer standards. Rejections of over 90 % were observed for all poly(styrene) oligomers starting from poly(styrene) dimer. This high rejection was attributed to the effective molecular sieving provided by the individual pores distributed throughout the polymer membrane.