Self-Assembled Nanoparticles Supported on Polycarbonate as Size-Selective Membranes for Continuous-Flow Catalysis

Abstract

The assembly of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) into large-area thin films provides an attractive route to create nanoporous membranes with distinctive structures and properties. Previously, we introduced a one-step strategy to synthesize wafer-scale self-assembled gold NP membranes, utilizing an amphiphilic amino fatty acid to simultaneously facilitate the formation and self-assembly of NPs directly in aqueous solutions. These membranes exhibited robust mechanical integrity stemming from strong hydrogen bonding interactions among ligand molecules, alongside micropores having a defined size cutoff around 1.2 nm, enabling selective molecular sieving based on size. Additionally, the high density of accessible catalytic sites on the gold NPs imparted outstanding catalytic activity in flow-through reactions. Leveraging these combined features, our membranes successfully realized continuous-flow size-selective catalysis, a capability not previously achieved with conventional catalytic membranes. Importantly, this scalable synthetic approach offers an effective and reliable method for producing diverse NP membranes suitable for numerous high-throughput applications.