Selective membrane transport

Cyclic Polyethers acting as mobile carriers in facilitated transport can cause changes of as much as three orders of magnitude in the fluxes of various cations across liquid membranes. The cyclic polyether dibenzo‐18‐crown‐6 (2,3,11,12‐dibenzo‐1,4,7,10,13,16‐hexaoxacyclooctadeca‐2,11‐diene) was used in this work to achieve such a large selectivity. The results show that a primary factor leading to the selectivity is the ratio of unsolvated cation radius to polyether central ring radius. The implication is that by selecting a polyether with a desired central ring radius, any two cations of slightly different radius can be separated efficiently.