Crosslinking of a Single Poly(ionic liquid) by Water into Porous Supramolecular Membranes

Yue Shao; Yong-Lei Wang; Xiangshuai Li; Atefeh Khorsand Kheirabad; Qiang Zhao; Jiayin Yuan; Hong Wang

doi:10.1002/anie.202002679

Crosslinking of a Single Poly(ionic liquid) by Water into Porous Supramolecular Membranes

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Sep 21;59(39):17187-17191. doi: 10.1002/anie.202002679. Epub 2020 Aug 6.

Authors

Yue Shao¹, Yong-Lei Wang², Xiangshuai Li¹, Atefeh Khorsand Kheirabad², Qiang Zhao³, Jiayin Yuan², Hong Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Polymer Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, P. R. China.
² Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Ministry of Education), School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu Road No. 1037, Wuhan, 430074, China.

PMID: 32583932
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202002679

Abstract

Reversible regulation of membrane microstructures via non-covalent interactions is of considerable interest yet remains a challenge. Herein, we discover a general one-step approach to fabricate supramolecular porous polyelectrolyte membranes (SPPMs) from a single poly(ionic liquid) (PIL). The experimental results and theoretical simulation suggested that SPPMs were formed by a hydrogen-bond-induced phase separation of a PIL between its polar and apolar domains, which were linked together by water molecules. This unique feature was capable of modulating microscopic porous architectures and thus the global mechanical property of SPPMs by a rational design of the molecular structure of PILs. Such SPPMs could switch porosity upon thermal stimuli, as exemplified by dynamically adaptive transparency to thermal fluctuation. This finding provides fascinating opportunities for creating multifunctional SPPMs.

Keywords: noncovalent interactions; poly(ionic liquid)s; reversible porosity; supramolecular membranes.