Hydrogen Bond Nanoscale Networks Showing Switchable Transport Performance

Hydrogen bond is a typical noncovalent bond with its strength only one-tenth of a general covalent bond. Because of its easiness to fracture and re-formation, materials based on hydrogen bonds can enable a reversible behavior in their assembly and other properties, which supplies advantages in fabrication and recyclability. In this paper, hydrogen bond nanoscale networks have been utilized to separate water and oil in macroscale. This is realized upon using nanowire macro-membranes with pore sizes ~tens of nanometers, which can form hydrogen bonds with the water molecules on the surfaces. It is also found that the gradual replacement of the water by ethanol molecules can endow this film tunable transport properties. It is proposed that a hydrogen bond network in the membrane is responsible for this switching effect. Significant application potential is demonstrated by the successful separation of oil and water, especially in the emulsion forms.