Lamellar Cristae‐Mimetic Sieving Membranes for Petrochemical Refining

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Isomerization processes produce approximately four million barrels of gasoline per day worldwide. Membrane‐based extraction of low‐concentration linear alkane residues from isomerate can improves both process economics and fuel octane number. However, this separation remains constrained by the permeance‐selectivity trade‐off. Here, by exploiting lattice‐mismatch strain during structural transformation, we engineered metal–organic framework nanosheet membranes that bend to a minimal curvature radius of 98.7 nm, forming a lamellar cristae‐mimetic architecture with a large surface area. An ultrathin sieving layer was continuously integrated onto this structure, delivering a 3‐fold increase in linear‐alkane permeance together with higher selectivity than conventional flat membranes. As a result, the octane number of isomerate increased from 70.6 to 92.6 over an equivalent duration of 2.45 h kmol −1 m −2 . This work presents a promising strategy for highly efficient petrochemical refining.