Nanoscale membrane for removing trace organic contaminants in a fluid and methods of making and using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020101425-A1
Application number	US-201816147534-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 28, 2018
Priority date	Sep 28, 2018
Publication date	Apr 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A membrane for filtering one or more hydrophobic organic contaminants can include a porous nanostructure that includes one or more of a metal, a metal oxide, and a metal alloy nanostructure component functionalized with one or more amphiphilic ligands.

First claim

1 . A membrane for filtering one or more hydrophobic organic contaminants from a fluid, comprising:
a porous nanostructure comprising metal-containing nanowires; and one or more amphiphilic ligands attached to or assembled on the porous nanostructure thereby functionalizing the porous nanostructure.

2 . The membrane of claim 1 , wherein the one or more amphiphilic ligands comprises a linear amphiphilic chain comprising a hydrophobic alkane segment connected with a hydrophilic polyethylene glycol segment and/or amphiphilic dendrimers having an inner hydrophobic region and outer hydrophilic region.

3 . The membrane of claim 1 , wherein the one or more amphiphilic ligands comprises a thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin.

4 . The membrane of claim 3 , wherein the thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin is 6-thiol-β-cyclodextrin.

5 . The membrane of claim 3 , wherein the thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin comprises α-cyclodextrin, β-cyclodextrin, and/or γ-cyclodextrin.

6 . (canceled)

7 . The membrane of claim 1 , wherein metal-containing nanowires comprise gold nanowires.

8 . The membrane of claim 1 , wherein the metal-containing nanowires comprises a gold alloy selected from the group consisting of gold-copper alloys, gold-silver alloys, gold-iron alloys, and oxides and combinations thereof.

9 . (canceled)

10 . The membrane of claim 1 , wherein the metal-containing nanowires comprise one or more of gold, copper, silver, iron, nickel, alloys thereof, and oxides thereof.

11 . (canceled)

12 . (canceled)

13 . (canceled)

14 . A method of making a membrane for filtering one or more organic contaminants from a fluid comprising:
contacting a solution comprising metal-containing nanowires with a porous substrate under conditions sufficient to dispose the nanowires on top of the porous substrate; drying the nanowires on the porous substrate by applying a vacuum or pressurized air, wherein upon drying the nanowires entangle to form a porous nanostructure disposed on the porous support; and functionalizing the nanowires by contacting the nanowires with a solution comprising one or more amphiphilic ligands, wherein the one or more amphiphilic ligands self-assemble onto the nanowires in solution to form functionalized nanowires.

15 . A method of making a membrane for filtering one or more organic contaminants from a fluid comprising:
depositing a solution of metal-containing nanowires onto an immiscible liquid, under conditions sufficient to allow the nanowires to self-assemble into a sheet-like porous nanostructure at a liquid-liquid interface or upon solvent evaporation at a liquid-air interface; transferring the sheet-like nanostructure to a porous support; and functionalizing the nanowires by contacting the nanowires with a solution comprising one or more amphiphilic ligands, wherein the one or more amphiphilic ligands self-assemble onto the nanowires in solution to form functionalized nanowires.

16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein functionalizing the nanowires comprises flowing the solution comprising one or more amphiphilic ligands through the porous nanostructure under conditions sufficient to allow the one or more amphiphilic ligands to self-assemble on the nanowires of the nanostructure.

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein functionalizing the nanowires comprises admixing the solution of nanowires with the solution comprising one or more amphiphilic ligands under conditions sufficient to allow the one or more amphiphilic ligands to self-assemble on the nanowires, wherein the nanowires are functionalized prior to forming the porous nanostructure.

18 . (canceled)

19 . (canceled)

20 . (canceled)

21 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the amphiphilic ligand is a thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein the thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin is 6-thiol-β-cyclodextrin.

23 . (canceled)

24 . The method of claim 14 further comprising contacting the porous substrate with a solvent after the porous substrate is contacted with the solution comprising the nanowires to thereby precipitate the nanowires from the solution onto the porous substrate.

25 . (canceled)

26 . (canceled)

27 . The method claim 14 , wherein the metal-containing nanowires comprise a transition metal, a transition metal alloy, a transition metal oxides, and combinations thereof.

28 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the metal-containing nanowires comprise one or more of gold, copper, silver, iron, nickel, alloys thereof, and oxides thereof

29 . A method of filtering a fluid using the membrane of claim 1 , comprising flowing water containing or suspected of containing one or more hydrophobic organic contaminants through the membrane, wherein as the water flows through the nanostructure, hydrophobic organic contaminants are trapped by a hydrophobic region of the amphiphilic ligand.

30 . The method of claim 29 , wherein the hydrophobic organic contaminant is an estradiol and the amphiphilic ligand is a thiolated derivative of cyclodextrin.

31 . The method of claim 29 , further comprising cleaning the membrane by flowing through a cleaning solution that removes hydrophobic contaminants trapped in the hydrophobic region of the amphiphilic ligand.

32 . (canceled)

33 . (canceled)

34 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Uchicago Argonne Llc

Inventors

• Lin Xiao-Min
• Wu Kun
• Sankaranarayanan Subramanian

Classifications

• B01D2325/12

  Adsorbents being present on the surface of the membranes or in the pores · CPC title

• B01D65/02

  Membrane cleaning or sterilisation {; Membrane regeneration} · CPC title

• B01D69/122

  Separate manufacturing of ultra-thin membranes · CPC title

• B01D69/147 Primary

  containing embedded adsorbents · CPC title

• B82Y40/00

  Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures · CPC title