Turing structures are beautiful ordered patterns widely found in nature

not only in insects and animals

but also in various plants

and Alan Turing proposed reaction and diffusion mechanism in his paper titled as " The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis”. How can polymer science be related to Turing structures? Recently Professor Zhang in Zhejiang University published a paper in Science clearly reporting the preparation of polyamide nanofiltration membrane with Turing structures. By introducing hydrophilic polyvinyl alcohol into the aqueous phase to reduce the diffusion rate of piperazine

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hydrogen bonding and increase solution viscosity

the Turing’s reaction-diffusion condition can be realized

and manipulation of shapes by control of reaction conditions enabled the creation of membranes with bubble or tube structures. These membranes exhibit excellent water-salt separation performance that surpasses the upper-bound line of traditional desalination membranes. This highlight recommends the breakthrough in polyamide membrane with excellent desalination performance by Chinese scientists

and the profound influence on preparation of more advanced polymer materials

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" reaction-diffusion system” is expected.