Provided is a forward osmosis membrane module composed of a plurality of hollow-fiber forward osmosis membranes. The forward osmosis membranes are each provided with a separation function layer on a surface of a hollow-fiber support membrane having a porous support body. The membrane surface area of the forward osmosis membrane module is 0.1 m.sup.2 or more. The porous support body is such that the porosity of a dense layer up to 1.0 m from the interface with the separation function layer is 40% or less. The average thickness of the separation function layer is 2.0 m or less, and the variation coefficient of the average thickness of the separation function layer is 30% or less in the radial direction and longitudinal direction of the forward osmosis membrane module.

An object of the present invention is to provide a porous hollow-fiber membrane having high strength while maintaining high pure-water permeation performance. A porous hollow-fiber membrane of the present invention is a porous hollow-fiber membrane including a fluororesin-based polymer, in which the porous hollow-fiber membrane has a columnar texture oriented in a longitudinal direction of the porous hollow-fiber membrane, and a molecular chain of the fluororesin-based polymer is oriented in the longitudinal direction of the porous hollow-fiber membrane.

Devices and methods related to a graphene oxide-based membrane are provided. A method comprises immersing graphene oxide-based layers in a water-based solution, stirring the water-based solution in a swirling motion until the graphene oxide-based layers each physically curve, adding a crosslinker to the water-based solution to cause the formation of saccate graphene oxide-based cells that are connected to each other via channels, and stacking the saccate graphene oxide-based cells on a substrate to form a graphene oxide-based membrane.

The present invention refers to a process for obtaining reduced graphene oxide (rGO) porous membranes, homogeneous, without cracks, using very low quantities of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, highly adhered to the porous support and with high mechanical stability. The obtained rGO membranes present high quality and excellent operational efficiency and can be used in applications involving separation of ionic, molecular and biological species in liquid and gaseous phases, such as the treatment of water and industrial effluents and/or gas purification. Furthermore, the present invention also describes an ideal reactor to make it possible to obtain said reduced graphene oxide membranes obtained by the process described herein.

The present disclosure describes a process of obtaining a carbon membrane derived from polymer polybenzoxazine, for improved separation of gases with different kinetic diameters such as helium (2.60 ), hydrogen (2.89 ), carbon dioxide (3,30 ), oxygen (3.46 ), nitrogen (3.64 ), carbon monoxide (3.70 ), methane (3.80 ), ethylene (4.23 ) and ethane (4.42 ) from the molecular sieving mechanism.

A substrate surface may be modified with a polymer coating to render the surface suitable for plasma functionalization. The polymer coating is deposited onto the surface at ambient temperature to a thickness of less than 0.1 m. The polymer coating includes poly(p-xylylene) or a derivative thereof, and is capable of penetrating into pores of a porous substrate while no substantially altering the porosity of the substrate. The coated substrate is selected from a material lacking a primary or secondary aliphatic hydrogen atom.

A method of producing microporous membranes includes stretching a multi-layer layer extrudate having first and second layers, the first layer including a first polyolefin and a first diluent, and the second layer including a second polyolefin and a second diluent, the second polyolefin including polypropylene in an amount of 1.0 wt. % to 40.0 wt. %, the polypropylene having an Mw>0.910.sup.6 and a Hm100.0 J/g; removing at least a portion of the diluents to produce a dried membrane having a first length and a first width; stretching the membrane by a first magnification factor of 1.1 to 1.5 and stretching the membrane by a second magnification factor of 1.1 to 1.3; and reducing the width.

A composition of matter including a two-dimensional covalent organic imidazole framework (COF) polymer having an aromatic backbone and ordered nanometer sized pores that may be functionalized with a variety of functional groups. A filtration membrane having both high throughput and highly selective transport or rejection of a species of interest based on size, charge or other molecular properties is readily formed of the two-dimensional COF polymer. The filtration membrane being formed by providing a substrate, such as anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), and then depositing exfoliated carboxyl COF onto the substrate.

The invention provides a porous hybrid matrix membrane support having at least one porous mesh layer of mesh densified to form a membrane mesh support and at least one porous filament layer of filaments that are generally non-woven, densified to form a membrane filament support. The filament layer is densified to provide a sufficiently small crevice depth in the membrane filament support that can help protect a membrane layer on the membrane filament support from rupturing. The membrane mesh support and the membrane filament support with micro-smooth surfaces can be integrally joined by diffusion bonding to resist separation across the adjoining surfaces. The combined, diffusion bonded support of both types of layers provide structural support sufficient for high pressures and provide substantial uniform permeability across the face of the structural support.

A method for making a graphene membrane includes applying a suspension of graphene platelets in a fluid onto a porous substrate, and applying a pressure differential to force the fluid through the substrate to yield a filtered fluid while retaining the graphene platelets on the substrate. The graphene platelets and the substrate form the graphene membrane.