Ultrafast Water\nTransport of Reverse Osmosis Membrane\nBased on Quasi-Vertically Oriented 2D Interlayer

Interlayered thin-film composite\n(i-TFC) membranes based\non 2D\nmaterials have been widely studied due to their high efficiency in\nmass transfer. However, the randomly stacked 2D nanosheets usually\nincrease the fluid path length to some extent. Herein, <i>in\nsitu</i>-grown quasi-vertically oriented 2D ZIF-L was introduced\nas an interlayer for preparing high-performance reverse osmosis (RO)\nmembranes. Through the optimization of the crystal growth based on\nthe inert polyethylene substrate, the novel i-TFC RO membrane via\ninterfacial polymerization shows an outstanding water permeance (5.50\nL m<sup>–2</sup> h<sup>–1</sup> bar<sup>–1</sup>) and good NaCl rejection (96.3%). The membrane also shows promising\npotential in domestic water purification and organic solvent separation\napplications. Compared with the randomly stacked ZIF-L interlayer,\nthe advantages of the vertically oriented one were ascribed to the\nexcellent storage capacity of the amine monomers and the intensified\ngutter effect. This work will encourage more exploration on the interlayer\narchitectures for high-performance i-TFC membranes.