LAUSR

Abstract Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) is one of the fast development areas of membrane separation. The nanofiltration performances of membranes are mainly depended on the thickness of separation layers and the orientation of separation channels. Herein, an ultrathin α-Co(OH)2 film was fabricated through the in situ growth of α-Co(OH)2 nanosheets on alumina tubular substrate for OSN. The thickness of the film was approximately 300 nm and the α-Co(OH)2 nanosheets were vertically grown to leave channels perpendicular to the substrate. The orientation growth and interlayer gallery of the α-Co(OH)2 layer were confirmed by SEM, PXRD and SAXS characterization. The resulting composite membrane exhibits high fluxes for organic solvents. Particularly, in separating eriochrome black T from methanol solution, the permeance could reach 127 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. We anticipate that the facile fabrication method and excellent separation performances make the α-Co(OH)2 composite membrane have a great application potential in OSN.