계면 중합(interfacial polymerization, IP) 기반 복합 박막(thin-film composite, TFC) 분리막은 유기 용매 나노여과 (organic solvent nanofiltration, OSN)의 핵심 기술이나, 투과도와 선택성의 상충 관계 해결이 과제다. 본 연구에서는 resorcinol( RES)과 trimesoyl chloride (TMC)의 폴리아릴레이트 선택층 내에 필라[5]아렌 (P[5])을 공유 결합으로 담지하는 IP 전략을 제안한다. 제조된 분리막은 P[5]의 거대고리 구조에 의한 자유 부피 증가로 우수한 메탄올 투과도를 보였으며, 이소프 로판올(isopropanol, IPA) 전처리를 통해 선택성 저하 없이 성능을 추가 개선하였다. 특히 P[5] 도입은 500 Da 부근에서 급격 한 분자량 차단(molecular weight cutoff, MWCO) 특성을 유도했는데, 이는 P[5]가 매트릭스 내에서 정밀한 자유 부피 분포를 조절했음을 시사한다. 본 연구는 빠른 용매 수송과 옹스트롬(Å) 수준의 정밀 분리가 가능한 고성능 OSN 분리막의 확장 가능 한 제조 경로를 제시하며, 이는 정밀 화학 및 제약 공정에 적합할 것으로 기대된다.

Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes made by interfacial polymerization (IP) are central to organic-solvent nanofiltration (OSN), but achieving both high permeance and sharp molecular cutoff remains challenging. Here we report a macrocycle-assisted IP strategy that covalently integrates pillar[5]arene (P[5]) macrocycles into polyarylate selective layers formed from resorcinol (RES) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) condensation reaction. The resulting P[5]–polyarylate TFCs show higher methanol (MeOH) permeance than water, ethanol, and isopropanol (IPA) under the tested conditions. This trend is likely related to the increased free volume elements introduced by the rigid macrocyclic structure. Moreover, IPA pretreatment activates the membranes, further enhancing MeOH permeance without compromising size selectivity, which is, to our best knowledge, not previously reported for polyarylates. Importantly, P[5] incorporation yields a steep solute-rejection transition centered around ~500 Da, in agreement with a prior result that P[5] based single-channel has molecular weight cut-off ~420 Da. This supports the interpretation that P[5] tuned a narrow, structured free-volume distribution within the polyarylate matrix. Taken together, P[5]-integrated polyarylate TFCs provide a scalable path to OSN membranes that combine fast MeOH transport, IPA-inducible performance gains, and an angstrom-scale MWCO in a practically relevant molecular-weight regime, offering relevance to fine-chemical and pharmaceutical separations.

요 약
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Experimental Section
    2.1. P[5] synthesis1,4-Dimethoxybenzene
    2.2. Membrane fabrication using the IP reaction
3. Results and Discussion
    3.1. Macrocycle-assisted interfacial polymerization
    3.2. Protic-solvent permeance and activation behavior
    3.3. Size-exclusion profile and macrocycle-definedcutoff
4. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Reference

• 김재현(포항공과대학교 환경공학부) | Jaehyun Kim (Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37637, Republic of Korea)
• 윤지영(포항공과대학교 환경공학부) | Jiyoung Yoon (Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37637, Republic of Korea)
• 박세은(포항공과대학교 환경공학부) | Saeun Park (Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37637, Republic of Korea)
• 송우철(포항공과대학교 환경공학부) | Woochul Song (Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37637, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author