In Situ Modification of Polycrystalline PCN‐250 Membrane for Efficient Separation of Organic Solvent Mixtures

ABSTRACT By targeting the secondary building units (SBUs) within the metal–organic framework (MOF) structure, the polycrystalline PCN‐250 MOF membrane was modified through an in situ imidazole functionalization approach. This simple yet effective modification successfully reduced the pore size of the membrane. As a result, the imidazole‐functionalized PCN‐250 membrane achieved efficient separation of methanol‐containing mixtures, including methanol/ n ‐hexane, methanol/dimethyl carbonate, and methanol/toluene. Compared with conventional distillation, pervaporation using this membrane required only 33.4% of the energy to achieve optimal separation performance under identical operating conditions. In addition, the modified membrane achieved high flux while retaining the excellent acid resistance of the original PCN‐250 material, providing a performance advantage over other MOF membranes used in similar applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-08-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.77799
Primary Topic
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

In Situ Modification of Polycrystalline PCN‐250 Membrane for Efficient Separation of Organic Solvent Mixtures

Chunqing Ji, Joseph Imbrogno, Yidan Duan, Xiansong Shi et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
article

In Situ Modification of Polycrystalline PCN‐250 Membrane for Efficient Separation of Organic Solvent Mixtures

Chunqing Ji, Joseph Imbrogno, Yidan Duan, Xiansong Shi, Haoyuan Zhang, He Li, Wenhua Li, Kai Yang, Dan Zhao, Yunchuan Pu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT By targeting the secondary building units (SBUs) within the metal–organic framework (MOF) structure, the polycrystalline PCN‐250 MOF membrane was modified through an in situ imidazole functionalization approach. This simple yet effective modification successfully reduced the pore size of the membrane. As a result, the imidazole‐functionalized PCN‐250 membrane achieved efficient separation of methanol‐containing mixtures, including methanol/ n ‐hexane, methanol/dimethyl carbonate, and methanol/toluene. Compared with conventional distillation, pervaporation using this membrane required only 33.4% of the energy to achieve optimal separation performance under identical operating conditions. In addition, the modified membrane achieved high flux while retaining the excellent acid resistance of the original PCN‐250 material, providing a performance advantage over other MOF membranes used in similar applications.

Advanced Functional Materials
Chongqing University (CN), National University of Singapore (SG), Pfizer (United States) (US), Guangzhou Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (China) (CN), Suzhou Research Institute (CN)
Agency for Science, Technology and Research, National Research Foundation Singapore, Science and Technology Support Program of Jiangsu Province
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 23%
Metal-Organic Frameworks: Synthesis and Applications
DOISourceOpenAlex
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