Lysozyme Membranes Promoted by Hydrophobic Substrates for Ultrafast and Precise Organic Solvent Nanofiltration

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is regarded as a promising separation technology in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However, it remains a great challenge in fabricating OSN membranes with high permeability and precise selectivity by simple, transfer-free, and up-scalable processes. Herein, we report lysozyme nanofilm composite membranes (LNCM) prepared by one-step methods with hydrophobic substrates at the air/water interface. The microporous substrates not only promote the heterogeneous nucleation of amyloid-like lysozyme oligomers to construct small pores in the formed nanofilms but also benefit for the simultaneous composition of LNCM via hydrophobic interactions. The constructed nanopores are reduced to around 1.0 nm, and they are demonstrated by grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering with a closely packed model. The LNCM can tolerate most organic polar solvents and the permeability surpasses most of state-of-the-art OSN membranes.