MXene membrane with directionally functionalized channel entrances for enhanced ion selectivity and permeability
while preserving high permeability for monovalent ion, thereby surpassing the selectivity-permeability trade-off limit of reported ion-separation membranes. Combined experiments and simulations reveal that alterations in ion transport pathways caused by differences in ion hydration structures within sub-nanochannels are the primary mechanism for ion separation. This mechanism contrasts with conventional interpretation that primarily attributes ion separation to differences in ion-molecule binding energies. This work establishes channel-entrance engineering as a useful strategy for the design of ion-separation membranes for mono-/divalent cation separation in brine upgrading and resource-recovery.
Authors
- Rongming Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9265-7808)
- Zheng Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0269-6542)
- Xiwang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4319-527X)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7800-3189)
- Jiachun Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8085-2470)
- Ling Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6004-782X)
- Bingcai Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3626-1539)
- Zhuyuan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1258-881X)
- Hang Yu
- Lu Lv (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6406-261X)
Institutions
- Nanjing Agricultural University (CN)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-05-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71889-9
- Primary Topic
- Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- Nanjing University