Compositions made of laminate comprised of porous carbon nanotube (CNT) are disclosed. Uses of the Compositions, particularly for reducing a formation of a load of a microorganism or of a biofilm, are also disclosed.

Filtration systems and methods for removing a filter residue from a filter employed in filtering a liquid (for example, grey water). The filtration system may include a vessel having an inlet through which a liquid can be introduced during use and an outlet through which filtered clean liquid can exit. A filter configured to filter the liquid is disposed within the vessel between the inlet and the outlet. The filtration system may further include at least one transducer disposed on or adjacent to the filter. The at least one transducer may be configured to generate one or more pressure waves effective to dislodge at least some residue materials collected on an upstream side of the filter.

Provided are a recyclable electret filtering membrane, a preparation method therefor and a cleaning and charge regeneration method therefor. The preparation method includes: dissolving fluorine-containing polymer particles and polyoxyethylene particles in deionized water to prepare a spinning solution, and then performing electrostatic spinning, calcining, cooling, drying and corona charging to obtain the recyclable electret filtering membrane. A surface of the filtering membrane is subjected to water drop rolling cleaning and friction electrification after dust holding, and then dried to realize charge regeneration and reuse. The filtering membrane obtained in the present invention has an initial surface potential of (?600)-(?950) V, the potential can be regenerated to (?700)-(?1000) V by water drop rolling and electrification after dust holding, the charge recovery rate is 90%-125%, the dust removal rate is 90%-100%, and the filtering efficiency for PM.sub.2.5 is equal to or greater than 94%.

The present invention relates to ultrafiltration. In particular, the present invention provides nanoporous membranes having pores for generating in vitro and in vivo ultrafiltrate, devices and bioartificial organs utilizing such nanoporous membranes, and related methods (e.g., diagnostic methods, research methods, drug screening). The present invention further provides nanoporous membranes configured to avoid protein fouling with, for example, a polyethylene glycol surface coating.

Described herein is a method for altering the characteristics of a membrane comprising a dielectric material. The method comprises heating the membrane and applying an electric field in a direction out of the plane of the membrane to at least a portion of the dielectric material. At least a portion of the dielectric material becomes aligned with the applied electric field. In some embodiments, the membrane is piezoelectric and application of an electric signal to the membrane causes out of plane movement of the membrane. Also disclosed are membranes and systems and apparatuses comprising such membranes.

A method for fabricating a nanopore at a particular location in a membrane includes controlling a dielectric strength of the membrane at a particular location on the membrane while applying one of an electric potential or an electric current to the membrane, monitoring an electrical property across the membrane while one of the electric potential or the electric current is being applied across the membrane, detecting an abrupt change in the electrical property across the membrane while one of the electric potential or the electric current is being applied across the membrane; and removing the electric potential or the electric current from the membrane in response to detecting the abrupt change in the electrical property.

A membrane filtration cell is provided which includes a fluid passageway and a filtration membrane positioned within the passageway, the filtration membrane dividing the fluid passageway into two chambers, a retentate chamber and a permeate chamber. A first electrode is positioned in the retentate chamber and a second electrode is positioned in the permeate chamber, where the first electrode and the second electrode are configured to apply an electric field across the filtration membrane. The membrane filtration cell also includes an acoustic device configured to apply an acoustic field across the retentate chamber, where the synergistic combination of the electric field and the acoustic field prevents fouling on the filtration membrane. A method of filtering water is provided which includes generating an electric field across a filtration membrane with a first electrode positioned in the retentate chamber and a second electrode positioned in the permeate chamber, and generating an acoustic field across the retentate chamber with an acoustic device, where the synergistic combination of the electric field and the acoustic field prevents fouling on the filtration membrane.

A method is provided for fabricating a nanopore in a membrane. The method includes: applying an electric potential across the membrane, where value of the electric potential is selected to induce an electric field which causes a leakage current across the membrane; monitoring current flow across the membrane while the electric potential is being applied; detecting an abrupt increase in the leakage current across the membrane; and removing the electric potential across the membrane in response to detecting the abrupt increase in the leakage current.

A fluid conditioning control system for driving one or more coils in a fluid conditioning system with a target load current to generate an alternating magnetic field directed at a fluid, the control system comprising a controller, a switch mode power supply circuit and a push pull AC drive circuit, wherein the controller is arranged to develop a first variable output having a frequency range that sweeps between a minimum frequency and a maximum frequency, and further arranged to develop a second variable output in the form of a duty cycle controlled signal, wherein the switch mode power supply circuit is arranged to develop a variable supply voltage to the AC drive circuit in response to the second variable output and a current sense circuit, and the AC drive circuit is arranged to develop a drive signal for developing a target load current in response to the first variable output and the variable supply voltage, thereby forming a current feedback loop.

A filtration and selective fluidic recovery device comprises a housing having an inlet and an outlet. The housing has an opening extending from the inlet to the outlet and an internal support structure maintained in the opening. At least one planar filtration media is carried by the internal support structure where the media separates feedwater received at the inlet into at least a permeate and a concentrate that separately exit at the outlet.