Fabrication of new composite membrane filled with UiO-66 nanoparticles and its application to nanofiltration

A new type of MOF-polymer composite membranes was fabricated by depositing UiO-66 nanoparticles into a regenerated cellulose membrane. The UiO-66 nanoparticles filled the pore of the support membrane to offer selective pathways. The filtration performance of the new composite membranes was demonstrated for ultra/nano filtration of methylene blue (MB) and polyethylene glycol of different molecular sizes in aqueous solution. The perfect rejection of MB was attained at extremely high permeation flux compared with commercially available polymer membranes. The origin of the permeability and rejection was attributed to fluxes passing mainly through the intraparticle porosity of UiO-66 with the size cut-off between 1.22 and 2.28 nm. The unique membrane structure as well as the stability of UiO-66 in water enabled consistent filtration performance against bending and reuse.