Methods of making a poly(propylenimine) (PPI) sorbent, a PPI sorbent, structures including the PPI sorbent, methods of separating CO.sub.2 using the PPI sorbent, and the like, are disclosed.

A method of deionizing saline water by contacting the saline water with a diffusion barrier to remove at least a portion of divalent ions to form deionized water, in order to desalinate the deionized water without scale formation, and a method of fabricating the diffusion barrier. Various embodiments of the diffusion barrier, the method of fabricating thereof, and the method of deionizing the saline water are provided.

Disclosed herein are mixed matrix membranes, the mixed matrix membranes comprising a metal organic framework CA dispersed in a continuous polymer phase and methods of making and use thereof. The mixed matrix membranes can comprise a plurality of metal organic framework particles comprising UiO-66-(COOH).sub.2 dispersed in a continuous polymer phase. The mixed matrix membranes can comprise a plurality of metal organic framework particles dispersed in a continuous polymer phase comprising polyethersulfone, polyphenylsulfone, Matrimid, Torlon, cellulose acetate, or combinations thereof. Also disclosed herein are mixed matrix membranes for separating a target ion from a non-target ion in a liquid medium. Also described herein methods of separating a target ion from a non-target ion in a liquid medium using a mixed matrix membrane, wherein the mixed matrix membrane comprises a plurality of metal organic framework particles dispersed in a continuous polymer phase.

Provided herein is a method of forming a bicontinuous intraphase jammed emulsion gel.

Gas separation membranes as may be used in separating gaseous materials from one another and methods of forming the membranes are described. The separation membranes include polymer-grafted nanoparticles (GNPs) as a platform and a relatively small amount of free polymer. The free polymer and the polymer grafted to the nanoparticles have the same chemical structure and similar number average molecular weights. The gas separation membranes can exhibit high ideal selectivity and can be used in a variety of applications, such as carbon capture.

The present invention discloses a nanofiltration composite membrane, a preparation method and application thereof. The preparation method comprises: A) preparing 2D nano-material dispersion; B) first preparing a solution of a polymer material with a certain concentration, continuously adding a poor solvent under stirring conditions to subject the polymer material to chemical reaction to obtain a dispersion containing negatively charged polymer gel particles; C) subjecting the nano-material dispersion in step A) and the dispersion prepared in step B) to blending, membrane preparation and drying, and then placing the membrane into an alkaline solution with a certain concentration and pure water for soaking to obtain a nanofiltration composite membrane. The nanofiltration composite membrane can efficiently remove heavy metal complex ions through the synergistic effect of pore size screening and charge repulsion. Moreover, the rejection rate and flux of the nanofiltration composite membrane have not changed obviously after use for a long time.

The present application discloses a conductive membrane and a preparation method thereof, which belong to the field of membrane separation technology. The conductive membrane provided by the present application includes a porous base layer film, a porous intermediate layer film, and a porous conductive layer film which are disposed layer by layer in sequence; wherein at least some holes of the base layer film are communicated with holes of the conductive layer film through holes of the intermediate layer film, and material of the intermediate layer film is the same as material of the base layer film and of the conductive layer film. Regarding the conductive membrane provided by the present application, it can be coupled with electrochemical technology, so that the membrane exhibits new excellent properties at the same time of playing separating characteristic.

Polymer-based membranes and methods for fabricating membranes are described. The methods include forming a casting solution featuring a plurality of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-based solvent, and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-based modifying agent, dispersing the casting solution to form a first element, generating a plurality of active sites on a surface of the first element, and forming a polymer-based membrane by exposing the surface of the first element to a fluorosilane composition to form a fluorosilane layer on the surface, where the fluorosilane composition includes a silane compound having at least one alkyl substituent that includes between 9 and 21 fluorine atoms.

A device for continuous seawater desalination of and a method thereof. A hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane is made of a hydrophobic polymer and carbon-based materials, and the carbon-based materials are, such as, carbon nanotubes or graphene. The hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane is perforated to obtain the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane having micrometer-nanometer multi-level pore structure using laser light. Further, a surface is coated with a photothermal-electrothermal responsive polymer to increase electric joule heat and photothermal effects to increase energy utilization efficiencies, and the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane having multi-level pore structure and electrothermal effects and photothermal effects is finally obtained. A device is designed, a hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite porous membrane is applied to electro-induced and light-induced seawater desalination, and conditions are controlled to enable the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite porous membrane to generate heat.

Disclosed herein is a complex generator including a hydrophilic fiber membrane coated with an adsorption material. Electrical energy is generated in such a manner that the adsorption material is adsorbed onto a polar solvent in some region of the hydrophilic fiber membrane by asymmetrical wetting of the polar solvent for the hydrophilic fiber membrane.