Supramolecular fabrication of hyperbranched polyethyleneimine toward nanofiltration membrane for efficient wastewater purification

Nanofiltration technology has opened an efficient pathway to addressing the grand issue of wastewater purification.Polyethyleneimine(PEI),as a hydrophilic polymer,is a promising material to manufacture separation membranes owing to its superiority.Here,we prepared a hyperbranched PEI-based separation mem-brane through the supramolecular hydrogen bond interaction for wastewater purification.The amino groups in the PEI molecule were partially oxidized to the nitro groups with sodium hypochlorite(NaClO).Moreover,the PEI molecu-lar chains can be regulated from the hyperbranched state to the internal nucle-ation state.Molecular dynamics simulation results further indicated the strong hydrogen bonds among the oxidized PEI(O-PEI)molecular chains and the decreased gyration radius of the O-PEI molecule due to the formation of the nitro groups.In addition,the wettability and zeta potential of O-PEI membranes can be controlled by adjusting the molecular weight and oxidation degree of the PEI molecules.Under the collective effect of size screening and charge repulsion,the O-PEI separation membrane displayed a wide range of purification capabilities for contaminations,such as dye molecules and salts.This work may offer a new strategy to fabricate hyperbranched O-PEI membranes for wastewater purifica-tion.