Decorating a metal−organic framework UiO-66 layer on ceramics substrate by the seed-assisted solvothermal method for high-performance desalination

UiO-66 is one kind of zirconium-based metal-organic framework, and Zr 6 O 4 (OH) 4 clusters are the cornerstones of the three-dimensional framework. To obtain enough strength for desalination, a dense continuous UiO-66 membrane was synthetized by the seed-assisted solvothermal synthesis method on the alumina substrate. The thickness of the dense UiO-66 membrane on the alumina substrate could be reduced to 1 m. The thin layer achieved a high permeate flux of 0.344 L m -2 h -1 m -1 with the ion rejections of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ respectively reaching 82.1% and 98.2%. Such excellent performances were much better than those of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes. Na + and K + could also be rejected by the UiO-66 membrane based on the ligand effect, whose ion rejections were 49.8% and 45.8%, respectively. Due to the exceptional chemical stability of UiO-66, no degradation of membrane performance was observed by test up to 180 h toward the saline solution. These results show that the UiO-66 membrane on the alumina substrate gives a good promise in the desalination application.