Circularity is at the core of a sustainable future. The imperative to transition towards circularity in order to address the mounting scarcity of nutrient-energy-water ("NEW") resources has catalyzed the emergence of next-generation single-species selective membranes. Such high-precision separation will enable fit-for-purpose treatment and open avenues for novel membrane applications in the energy, water, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. However, current polymeric membranes are unable to obtain precise molecular sieving because they are constrained by the intrinsic permeability-selectivity tradeoff. This tradeoff exists due to the unavoidable defects and multiscale heterogeneity of the active layers fabricated using conventional top-down fabrication approaches. Therefore, designing the next-generation single-species selective membranes requires the ability to precisely control the pore structure and chemistry uniformly at the molecular level. In this seminar, I will showcase two examples of how a simple alternation of conventional fabrication technique using a self-assembled surfactant network can achieve sub-1 Å precision separation using polyamide nanofiltration membranes and enable multifold permeability-selectivity enhancement of polyelectrolyte multilayer nanofiltration membranes.
Dr. Yuanzhe Liang is a postdoctoral research associate at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science and Environmental Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2020. His dissertation work was focused on advanced membrane technologies for water purification and precise separation. Prior to his work at NREL, he did postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where he conducted research to address a knowledge gap in the understanding of the high-salinity effect on the structural and transport properties of polymeric membrane materials. The current focus of his work at NREL includes chemical recycling and resource recovery of waste plastics, as well as the development of ion-selective membranes for Li+ extraction from geothermal brine.