Ultrafast, Minute-Level Synthesis of Ultrathin Molecular-Sieving Membranes with Breakthrough Performance

Assembling the nanochannels of microporous crystalline materials in continuous membranes/coatings has broad applications for separation, selective catalysis, and sensing. Current hydrothermal/solvothermal synthesis methods, however, suffer from long synthesis time, typically hours or days, leading to low fabrication efficiency and intensive energy consumption. Herein, we report an ultrafast synthesis strategy to prepare continuous molecular-sieving membranes, reducing synthesis time to just one to a few minutes-nearly two orders of magnitude faster than traditional ones. This was realized through a combination of a nuclei-loaded seed layer and a drastically increased crystallization rate, preventing substantial dissolution of the seed layer and successfully incorporating it into the resulting membranes. Utilizing this strategy, high-quality zeolite membranes-exhibiting breakthrough separation performance compared to previously reported ones, were rapidly prepared. Interestingly, ultrathin oriented zeolite membranes with ultrahigh separation performance were also prepared in as little as one minute. The drastically shortened synthesis time, together with the demonstrated reproducibility, highlights the practical potential of the UFS strategy for molecular-sieving membranes and coatings.