Research groups led by Prof. Xu Tongwen and Prof. Li Xingya from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) have proposed the concept of total dehydration of ions, and prepared metal-organic framework (MOF) confined crown ether membranes, which solved the problem of precise separation of ions in complex systems. The research results were published in Science Advances.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Perfect confinement of ce (~12 Å) in the UiO- 66 cavity. (Image by XU et al.). Credit: ustc The efficient and precise separation of ions involves important chemical processes such as lithium extraction from salt lakes, seawater refining, and high-salt wastewater resource utilization. The ions in these systems have complex compositions, and their sizes are all at the angstrom level, which is a technical challenge that needs to be solved in the current chemical separation industry. According to the team's previous research results, the angstrom-scale membrane channels helped ions undergo partial dehydration and promoted ion transfer and sieving. In order to further enhance the flux and selectivity of monovalent…