Cation exchange membranes and materials including silica-based ceramics, and associated methods, are provided. In some aspects, cation exchange membranes that include a silica-based ceramic that forms a coating on and/or within a porous support membrane are described. The cation exchange membranes and materials may have certain structural or chemical attributes (e.g., pore size/distribution, chemical functionalization) that, alone or in combination, can result in advantageous performance characteristics in any of a variety of applications for which selective transport of positively charged ions through membranes/materials is desired. In some embodiments, the silica-based ceramic contains relatively small pores (e.g., substantially spherical nanopores) that may contribute to some such advantageous properties. In some embodiments, the cation exchange membrane or material includes sulfonate and/or sulfonic acid groups covalently bound to the silica-based ceramic.

Disclosed herein is an ion selective separation membrane including: a metal organic framework layer formed on, in, and/or around a substrate, the metal organic framework having a crystal structure that includes a first surface and a second surface and includes ion transport channels formed between respective pore windows in the first surface and the second surface; first and second electrodes to apply a potential difference across the membrane; wherein the respective pore windows have a pore size that is less than the hydrated diameter of the ion for which the ion selective separation membrane is selective.

Provided is a facilitated CO.sub.2 transport membrane having an improved CO.sub.2 permeance and an improved CO.sub.2/H.sub.2 selectivity. The facilitated CO.sub.2 transport membrane includes a separation-functional membrane that includes a hydrophilic polymer gel membrane containing a CO.sub.2 carrier and a CO.sub.2 hydration catalyst. Further preferably, the CO.sub.2 hydration catalyst at least has catalytic activity at a temperature of 100 C. or higher, has a melting point of 200 C. or higher, or is soluble in water.

The present invention relates to a device and method for sample preparation and collection. More closely the invention relates to a device to isolate DNA, RNA and proteins or other biomolecules in one single step from the same undivided sample

A hollow fiber (HF) membrane incorporating molybdenum trioxide (MoO.sub.3) nanoparticles. The membrane may be composed of PPSU hollow fibers that are coated or encrusted with MoO.sub.3 nanoparticles and can be made by dry-wet spinning. The hollow fiber membranes containing MoO.sub.3 nanoparticles remove lead, cadmium or other heave metals from waste water and are resistant to attachment of bacteria and fouling.

Photocatalytic materials with a composite photocatalyst of a metal oxide impregnated with elemental metal particles, can be embedded into a hydrophilic polymer having pores with diameters of less than 2 nm, to provide a useful water remediation and/or purification product. The metal oxide may be WO.sub.3, CeO.sub.2, Bi.sub.2O.sub.3, NiO, TiO.sub.2, and/or ZnO, and the elemental metal particles, impregnated or compounded into the metal oxide, may be Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, Ce, Mn, Mo, V, Bi, Sn, W, Nb, Pd, and/or Pt. The photocatalytic materials may be easily removed and/or retrieved after use, and can effectively combat both chemical and biological contamination and/or fouling of water as well as the membranes composed of the photocatalytic material.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method which can produce an ionic liquid-containing network structure with high productivity. A method for producing an ionic liquid-containing structure, which includes an inorganic particle network structure forming step of forming a network structure by inorganic particles in the presence of an ionic liquid, and a polymer network structure forming step of forming a network structure by polymerization of a monomer component containing at least a polar group-containing monomer in the presence of the ionic liquid is provided.

A filtering device is for obtaining a chemical liquid by purifying a liquid to be purified, and the filtering device has an inlet portion, an outlet portion, a filter A, at least one filter B different from the filter A, and a flow path which includes the filter A and the filter B arranged in series and extends from the inlet portion to the outlet portion, in which the filter A has a porous base material made of polyfluorocarbon and a coating layer which is disposed to cover the porous base material and contains a resin having an adsorptive group.

Provided is a water treatment flow channel member in which the occurrence of fouling is suppressed. A water treatment flow channel member 1 of the present invention is formed from a molded product containing a synthetic resin and a nanocarbon material.

An improved method for concentrating dispersions of graphene oxide, coating a substrate with a layer of a graphene oxide solution, and producing a supported graphene membrane stabilised by controlled deoxygenation; and graphene-based membranes that demonstrate ultra-fast water transport, precise molecular sieving of gas and solvated molecules, and which show great promise as novel separation platforms.