Hydrogen-Bonded, Hierarchically Structured Single-Component Chiral Poly(ionic liquid) Porous Membranes: Facile Fabrication and Application in Enantioselective Separation

Abstract

The development of strategies for producing welldefined chiral porous membranes for the rapid and efficient enantioseparation of racemic mixtures remains a great challenge. Herein, we introduce an innovative, simple, and easily scalable synthetic strategy to manufacture chiral porous polymer membranes (CPPMs) bearing chiral NH groups by crosslinking single-component chiral poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) with water molecules via hydrogen (H)-bonding. The chiral evolution process from ionic liquid monomers to PILs to chiral porous membrane has been well-demonstrated by a suite of experimental results from single-crystal structural analysis, 1H NMR spectra, circular dichroism spectrum, and in situ scanning confocal microscopy. We demonstrate that these CPPMs are capable of efficient enantioseparation of drug enantiomers via directional H-bonding interactions and create a novel chiral membrane separation system.