Sub-4 nanometer porous membrane enables highly efficient electrodialytic fractionation of dyes and inorganic salts
During the synthesis of dyes, desalination of high-salinity dye-containing waste liquor is a critical premise for high-quality, clean dye production. Conventional membrane processes, such as electrodialysis, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration, are inevitably subjected to serious membrane fouling, deteriorating the dye/salt fractionation efficacy. Integrating the technical merits of electrodialysis and pressure-driven membrane separation, we devise an electro-driven filtration process using a tight ultrafiltration membrane as alternative to conventional anion exchange membrane for rapid anion transfer, in view of dye desalination and purification. By employing a sub-4 nanometer tight ultrafiltration membrane as anion conducting membrane, the electro-driven filtration process achieves 98.15% desalination efficiency and 99.66% dye recovery for one-step fractionation of reactive dye and NaCl salt, markedly outperforming the system using commercial anion exchange membranes. Notably, the electro-driven filtration system displays a consistently high and stable fractionation performance for dyes and salts with unprecedentedly low membrane fouling through an eight-cycle continuous operation. Our results demonstrate that the electro-driven filtration process using nanoporous membranes as high-performance anion conducting membranes shows a critical potential in fractionation of organic dyes and inorganic salts, unlocking the proof of concept of nanoporous membranes in electro-driven application.
Authors
- William Toh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3171-5119)
- Bart Van der Bruggen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9913-2932)
- Ming Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2729-9746)
- Xiaolei Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2211-4813)
- Elisa Y.M. Ang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5596-5051)
- Jiangjing Li
- Tianci Chen
- Jianquan Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9949-7779)
- Wenyuan Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3832-3705)
- Shuaifei Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7727-6676)
- Teng Yong Ng
- Yinhua Wan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0687-3382)
- Jiuyang Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4054-948X)
- Kuo Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4208-8322)
- Junming Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2304-8029)
- Zijian Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0422-7144)
- Xuewei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6820-9976)
- Lidong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9683-037X)
- Dong Han Seo
- Peng Cheng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1796-1946)
Institutions
- Shenyang Institute of Engineering (CN)
- Tshwane University of Technology (ZA)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Singapore Institute of Technology (SG)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Gansu Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Process Engineering (CN)
- Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University of Bath (GB)
- Fuzhou University (CN)
- Bath Spa University (GB)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-04-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58873-5
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Membrane-based Ion Separation Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.07
Funders
- Leverhulme Trust
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- Royal Society
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
- Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province
- Jiangxi University of Science and Technology
- Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning
- National Supercomputing Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information