Thermal Shielding and Vapor Transport Enhancement in MOF‐Enabled Membranes for Membrane Distillation
Desalination via membrane distillation (MD) powered by low-grade or waste heat is an emerging approach to energy-efficient water purification. However, conventional membranes suffer from significant conductive heat loss, which limits their thermal performance. Developing membranes with low thermal conductivity is crucial for enhancing thermal efficiency. This study introduces a metal-organic framework-enabled membrane (MEM) by embedding zeolite imidazole framework 8 (ZIF-8) onto Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PH) nanofiber. The MEM features a hierarchical porous structure, with an ultralow thermal conductivity (0.03 W m<sup>-1</sup> K<sup>-1</sup>), thereby minimizing heat dissipation. It outperforms conventional membranes, demonstrating a vapor flux of 44.5 LMH and a thermal efficiency of 71.3%, improving MD performance. Multi-scale simulations reveal that the dual improvements in thermal shielding and vapor flow facilitation enable the MEM to effectively harness low-grade heat sources inaccessible to traditional membranes, positioning it as a promising solution for a sustainable water-energy-environment nexus.
Authors
- Shahid Ali Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0132-8000)
- Jiawei Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8549-4534)
- Muhammad Usman Farid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1401-5559)
- Wentao Shang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5168-7696)
- Bhaskar Jyoti Deka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4199-4713)
- Jianhao Qian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0508-7494)
- Yanguang Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5085-8123)
- Wang Guang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3460-7292)
- Alicia Kyoungjin An (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-2817)
- Junghwan Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2311-4567)
- Xiaolu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1391-1093)
- Shengming Yin
- Jiaxin Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5924-9490)
- Gang Lü (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4247-2319)
- S.J. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7749-1563)
Institutions
- Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IN)
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Yonsei University (KR)
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- Energy International (United States) (US)
- National Institute of Hydrology (IN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Rice University (US)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2025-11-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202510323
- Primary Topic
- Membrane Separation Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Yonsei University
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology