High selective organic solvent nanofiltration composite membranes constructed from hydroxyl binaphthol and diacyl chloride by interfacial polymerization.

• 7,7′-OH-BINOL and diacyl chloride were used to prepare TFC OSN membranes. • The formed polyarylate layer show thin and high microporosity characters. • Two oil phase cross-linker result in nanofilms with diverse microstructures. • The optimal membrane shows methanol flux of 5.81 LMH/bar and MWCO of 288 Da. In recent years, OSN technology has gained great attention for its environmental friendly nature, energy efficiency, and small carbon footprint. Herein, we prepared TFC OSN membranes BINOL-TPC and BINOL-IPC with higher selectivity by employing a contorted molecule 7,7′-dihydroxy-2,2′-binaphthol (7,7′-OH-BINOL) with four functional groups and diacyl chloride (TPC/IPC) via interfacial polymerization (IP) method compared to with trimesoyl chloride (TMC). The use of monomer 7,7′-OH-BINOL with rigid, twisted and multiple reaction sites endow the resulted polyarylate layer with high microporosity and cross-linking density. Notably, the BINOL-TPC and BINOL-IPC membranes exhibited good performance in retaining small molecular solutes, with MWCO values of 288 and 344 Da, respectively. Meanwhile, the methanol permeance of the two composite membranes reach 5.81 and 7.06 LMH/bar, respectively. In addition, the membrane BINOL-TPC could achieve precise separation of mixed dyes with similar molecular weight but opposite charge. As can be seen, by designing and utilizing IP monomers with different structures and functionalities, it is possible to fabricate membranes with diverse microstructures and properties, ultimately leading to varied separation performances. This research offers some new insights in the view of molecular-level tailoring for the fabrication of high performance OSN membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]