Abstract
Synthesis of robust, functional membranes is hindered by the lack of spatial control in conventional bulk-phase reactions, which offer limited regulation over network structure and nanoscale uniformity. Here we report a nanoconfinement strategy to fabricate membranes where polymerization occurs within sub-2-nm channels that act as spatially defined reaction compartments. The nanoconfined space governs nanoscale alignment and network packing, producing high-density poly(epoxy) membranes (1.51 g cm−3), 37% denser than their non-confined analogue (1.10 g cm−3) and exceeding typical polymers. The resulting materials combine high tensile strength (119.9 MPa), flexibility (100,000 bending cycles) and broad solvent resistance, unifying properties that are difficult to achieve simultaneously. We further demonstrate that producing high-density membrane matrices facilitates selective ion transport, as shown by as-fabricated positively charged poly(ammonium) membranes, which outperform state-of-the-art counterparts in terms of mechanical strength, OH⁻ conductivity and selectivity against small neutral molecules. This work demonstrates nanomaterials as spatially confined reactors to govern polymer architecture and function, while also offering fundamental insights into structure regulation under nanoconfinement.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.
Change history
20 March 2026
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-026-01050-3
References
Jiang, Z. et al. Aligned macrocycle pores in ultrathin films for accurate molecular sieving. Nature 609, 58–64 (2022).
Yao, Y. et al. More resilient polyester membranes for high-performance reverse osmosis desalination. Science 384, 333–338 (2024).
Wang, A. et al. Selective ion transport through hydrated micropores in polymer membranes. Nature 635, 353–358 (2024).
Zuo, P. et al. Near-frictionless ion transport within triazine framework membranes. Nature 617, 299 (2023).
Karan, S., Jiang, Z. & Livingston, A. G. Sub-10 nm polyamide nanofilms with ultrafast solvent transport for molecular separation. Science 348, 1347–1351 (2015).
Zhang, Y. et al. Ice-confined synthesis of highly ionized 3D-quasilayered polyamide nanofiltration membranes. Science 382, 202–206 (2023).
Zhao, C. et al. Layered nanocomposites by shear-flow-induced alignment of nanosheets. Nature 580, 210–215 (2020).
Wan, S. et al. High-strength scalable graphene sheets by freezing stretch-induced alignment. Nat. Mater. 20, 624–631 (2021).
Li, W. et al. Ultrastrong MXene film induced by sequential bridging with liquid metal. Science 385, 62–68 (2024).
Chowdhury, M. R., Steffes, J., Huey, B. D. & McCutcheon, J. R. 3D printed polyamide membranes for desalination. Science 361, 682–686 (2018).
Yang, J. et al. Water-induced strong isotropic MXene-bridged graphene sheets for electrochemical energy storage. Science 383, 771–777 (2024).
Yeh, C.-N., Raidongia, K., Shao, J., Yang, Q.-H. & Huang, J. On the origin of the stability of graphene oxide membranes in water. Nat. Chem. 7, 166–170 (2015).
Küchler, A., Yoshimoto, M., Luginbühl, S., Mavelli, F. & Walde, P. Enzymatic reactions in confined environments. Nat. Nanotechnol. 11, 409–420 (2016).
Dods, R. et al. Ultrafast structural changes within a photosynthetic reaction centre. Nature 589, 310–314 (2021).
Mao, L.-B. et al. Synthetic nacre by predesigned matrix-directed mineralization. Science 354, 107–110 (2016).
Grommet, A. B., Feller, M. & Klajn, R. Chemical reactivity under nanoconfinement. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 256–271 (2020).
Wang, Z. et al. From layered crystals to permselective membranes: history, fundamentals, and opportunities. Chem. Rev. 125, 6753–6818 (2025).
Chen, L. et al. Ion sieving in graphene oxide membranes via cationic control of interlayer spacing. Nature 550, 380–383 (2017).
Ding, L. et al. Effective ion sieving with Ti3C2Tx MXene membranes for production of drinking water from seawater. Nat. Sustain. 3, 296–302 (2020).
Wang, Y., Lian, T., Tarakina, N. V., Yuan, J. & Antonietti, M. Lamellar carbon nitride membrane for enhanced ion sieving and water desalination. Nat. Commun. 13, 7339 (2022).
Ries, L. et al. Enhanced sieving from exfoliated MoS2 membranes via covalent functionalization. Nat. Mater. 18, 1112–1117 (2019).
Pathan, S. et al. Fundamental understanding of ultrathin, highly stable self-assembled liquid crystalline graphene oxide membranes leading to precise molecular sieving through non-equilibrium molecular dynamics. ACS Nano 17, 7272–7284 (2023).
Xu, R., Kang, Y., Zhang, W., Pan, B. & Zhang, X. Two-dimensional MXene membranes with biomimetic sub-nanochannels for enhanced cation sieving. Nat. Commun. 14, 4907 (2023).
Kang, Y. et al. Nanoconfinement enabled non-covalently decorated MXene membranes for ion-sieving. Nat. Commun. 14, 4075 (2023).
Wang, Y. et al. Graphite phase carbon nitride based membrane for selective permeation. Nat. Commun. 10, 1–8 (2019).
Cheng, L. et al. Metal confined in 2D membranes for molecular recognition and sieving towards ethylene/ethane separation. Adv. Mater. 34, 2206349 (2022).
Enikolopiyan, N. New aspects of the nucleophilic opening of epoxide rings. Pure Appl. Chem. 48, 317–328 (1976).
Wang, Z. et al. Scalable high yield exfoliation for monolayer nanosheets. Nat. Commun. 14, 236 (2023).
Di Vincenzo, M. et al. Biomimetic artificial water channel membranes for enhanced desalination. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 190–196 (2021).
Zhang, H. et al. High-performance spiro-branched polymeric membranes for sustainability applications. Nat. Sustain. 7, 910–919 (2024).
Shi, B. et al. Short hydrogen-bond network confined on COF surfaces enables ultrahigh proton conductivity. Nat. Commun. 13, 6666 (2022).
Zheng, W. et al. Poly(dibenzothiophene-terphenyl piperidinium) for high-performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysis. Angew. Chem. 63, e202405738 (2024).
Olsson, J. S., Pham, T. H. & Jannasch, P. Poly(arylene piperidinium) hydroxide ion exchange membranes: synthesis, alkaline stability, and conductivity. Adv. Funct. Mater. 28, 1702758 (2018).
Yang, D. et al. Solution-processable polymer membranes with hydrophilic subnanometre pores for sustainable lithium extraction. Nat. Water 3, 319–333 (2025).
Liu, X. et al. Ultrathin membranes prepared through interfacial polymer cross-linking for selective and fast ion transport. Nat. Chem. Eng. 2, 369–378 (2025).
Liu, X. et al. Magnetic-field-oriented mixed-valence-stabilized ferrocenium anion-exchange membranes for fuel cells. Nat. Energy 7, 329–339 (2022).
Andreeva, D. V. et al. Two-dimensional adaptive membranes with programmable water and ionic channels. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 174–180 (2021).
Tadmor, Z. & Gogos, C. G. Principles of Polymer Processing (John Wiley, 2013).
Acknowledgements
This research was conducted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of Carbon Dioxide (CE230100017)and funded by the Australian Government. X. Zhang thanks the Australian Research Council for his ARC Future Fellowship (FT210100593). This work was supported by resources provided by the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources and services from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government. D.V.A. and K.S.N. acknowledge the support from the Ministry of Education (Singapore) under the Research Centre of Excellence programme (grant EDUN C-33-18-279-V12, the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (I-FIM)).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization was done by X. Zhang and Z.W. The methodology was developed by Z.W., X. Zhang, A.K.W., D.V.A. and K.S.N. Computational studies and simulations were designed and performed by Y.W., X.Y. and J.Z.L. Experiments, characterizations, data analysis and validation were carried out by Z.W., M.Y., Z.-X.L., X. Zeng, H.Z., X.L., K.S., M.T., J.Y., R.X., W.Z., K.X., Y.K., E.S., C.J. and C.Z. All authors reviewed the paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Synthesis thanks Xiaoqiang An, Yan Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary handling editor: Jet-Sing Lee, in collaboration with the Nature Synthesis team.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information (download PDF )
Materials and methods, Supplementary Figs. 1–32, Discussion, Tables 1–5 and References.
Supplementary Video (download MP4 )
Robust membranes enabled by nanochannel-confined polymerization
Supplementary Video (download AVI )
Computational insights into polymer configuration regulation within nanochannels
Source data
Source Data Fig. 2 (download XLSX )
Statistical source data for Fig. 2a–b,c,g,h,j.
Source Data Fig. 3 (download XLSX )
Statistical source data for Fig. 3b–g.
Source Data Fig. 4 (download XLSX )
Statistical source data for Fig. 4a–e,i,j.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Z., Jia, C., Wang, Y. et al. Confined polymerization in nanochannels for synthesizing functional membranes. Nat. Synth (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-026-00991-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Version of record:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-026-00991-z
