Freestanding flexible molecularly imprinted nanocomposite membranes for selective separation applications: an imitated core–shell PEI@SiO2-based MIM design

Abstract

The development of molecularly imprinted membranes (MIMs) has promoted applications of membrane-based separation technology, which has shown considerable advantages in water treatment, chemical separation and drug purification. Herein, imitated core–shell PEI@SiO₂-based enoxacin-imprinted nanocomposite membranes (SPEIMs) were developed by mixing polyethylenimene-modified silica nanoparticles with polyvinylidene fluoride powder under freezing operation. As a typical and hazardous water pollutant, enoxacin was selected as the template molecule. Morphology and chemical characterizations were explored for an insightful analysis of the obtained membranes. Based on the organic–inorganic hybrid strategy, the as-prepared SPEIMs exhibited superior selectivity towards the target (enoxacin). Satisfactory adsorption performance (55.94 mg g⁻¹), permeability (3.22 for norfloxacin/enoxacin and 7.07 for ciprofloxacin/enoxacin) and regeneration performance (90.31%) were achieved onto SPEIMs. The products and methods obtained in this work would potentially enrich the applications of MIMs in pollution control and biochemical separation.