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Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Electrophoretic Crystallization of Ultrathin High-performance Metal-organic Framework Membranes
Published on: August 16, 2018
Super-Assembled Chiral Mesostructured Heteromembranes for Smart and Sensitive Couple-Accelerated Enantioseparation
Yanan Huang1, Hui Zeng1, Lei Xie1
1Shanghai Key Lab of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, iChEM, Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, P. R. China.
Abstract:
In the context of sustainable development, chirality, especially chiral drugs, has attracted great interest in the pharmaceutical industry, yet the smart and sensitive separation of enantiomers still presents a major scientific challenge. Herein, inspired by supramolecular templating via chiral transcription nanoparticles, an artificial chiral nanochannel membrane with asymmetric structure, porosity, and abundant chiral surface is fabricated for smart and sensitive enantiomer recognition and separation. Constructed from chiral transcript mesoporous silica (CMS) super-assembled on a porous anode alumina oxide (AAO) support, the obtained heterostructured chiral membrane (CMS/AAO) exhibits enhanced enantioseparation (approximately 170% compared to the supramolecular-templated nanoparticles) among a series of amino acids with various isoelectric points (PIs). Especially for amino acids with a PI greater than 7, the couple-accelerated enantioseparation (CAE) can be achieved for the first time. Further analysis using an osmotic energy conversion test and simulations based on the Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations confirm that the heterostructure and charge polarity are the key to achieve chiral amino acids and ion separation. We expect this work will inspire the development of multifunctional membrane systems for more sustainable and energy-efficient enantioseparation.
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