The present disclosure discloses a functional fluid gating control system, which comprises a porous membrane and a functional fluid. The functional fluid at least partially infiltrates the porous membrane and cooperates to form a fluid gating pathway. The functional fluid and/or the porous membrane responds to at least one stimulus and undergoes a physical change or a chemical change to change the threshold pressure of the transport substance. A transport fluid being immiscible with the functional fluid is controlled to pass through the fluid gating system, and thus controllable transport and multiphase separation of materials are achieved. The stimulus of the present disclosure comprises a wide range of sources, and the stimulus responsiveness of the functional fluid and the porous membrane can be randomly and freely combined to adapt to multiple stimuli from complex external conditions and achieve intelligent controllability.

Embodiments are directed to composite membranes having: increased volume of the microporous polymer structure relative to the total volume of the PEM; decreased permeance and thus increased selectivity; and lower ionomer content. An increased amount of polymers of the microporous polymer structure is mixed with a low equivalent weight ionomer (e.g., <460 cc/mole eq) to obtain a composite material having at least two distinct materials. Various embodiments provide a composite membrane comprising a microporous polymer structure that occupies from 13 vol % to 65 vol % of a total volume of the composite membrane, and an ionomer impregnated in the microporous polymer structure. The acid content of the composite membrane is 1.2 meq/cc to 3.5 meq/cc, and/or the thickness of the composite membrane is less than 17 microns. The selectivity of the composite membrane is greater than 0.05 MPa/mV, based on proton conductance and hydrogen permeance.

A composite hollow fiber membrane according to one aspect of the present invention is provided with a semipermeable membrane layer, a support layer that has a hollow fiber shape and is porous, and an intermediate layer interposed between the semipermeable membrane layer and the support layer. The semipermeable membrane layer contains a crosslinked polyamide formed of a polyfunctional amine compound and a polyfunctional acid halide compound. The intermediate layer includes a layer portion made of the same material as the support layer, and the crosslinked polyamide impregnating the layer portion.

The present disclosure provides a metal-organic framework material/membrane composite material, a preparation method and a use thereof, which belongs to the technical field of water treatment. The method includes: mixing a membrane material with an alkali liquor, and performing a hydrolysis to obtain a hydrolyzed membrane; impregnating the hydrolyzed membrane in a metal salt aqueous solution and a framework organic solution in sequence, to form a metal-organic framework material/membrane composite material. In the composite material obtained by this method, the bonding strength between the membrane material and the metal-organic framework material is high, and it is not easy to separate them during the use and the composite material could be widely used. At the same time, the metal-organic framework material/membrane composite material obtained by this method has dual functionality, and thus could improve the efficiency of water treatment.

The present disclosure provides an ion-exchange membrane that includes a supporting substrate impregnated with an ion-exchange material. The supporting substrate includes an imprinted non-woven layer, and the imprinting includes a plurality of deformations at a surface density of at least 16 per cm.sup.2. The supporting substrate may lack a reinforcing layer. In some examples, the supporting substrate may include only a single layer of the imprinted non-woven fabric.

The present disclosure relates to a nanofiltration membrane and a method of manufacturing a nanofiltration membrane. The method includes providing a support structure having a first mesoporous layer made of TiO.sub.2 and/or ZrO.sub.2 and a second porous layer adjacent to the mesoporous layer made of aluminum oxide. The method further includes grafting an anchoring group within pores of the first mesoporous layer, wherein the second layer is inert to the grafting step. An initiator for a surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) reaction is covalently bonded to the anchoring group. The support structure is impregnated with a monomer and a solvent, and a polymerization reaction is performed, which includes passing a catalyst through the mesoporous layer, the monomer being configured to start the polymerization reaction by grafting from the initiator in the presence of the catalyst.

The present invention relates to a thin film composite membrane and a manufacturing method therefor. The thin film composite membrane according to the present invention has superior water flux and excellent salt (NaCl) rejection and/or boron rejection.

A catalytic membrane reactor and methods of operating and producing the same are provided that efficiently produces highly pure hydrogen (H.sub.2) from ammonia (NH.sub.3) as well as operates according to other chemical conversion processes. In one embodiment, a tubular ceramic support made from porous yttria-stabilized zirconia has an outer surface that is impregnated with a metal catalyst such as ruthenium and then plated with a hydrogen permeable membrane such as palladium. An inner surface of the ceramic support is impregnated with cesium to promote conversion of ammonia to hydrogen and nitrogen (N.sub.2). The resulting catalytic membrane reactor produces highly pure hydrogen at low temperatures and with less catalytic loading. Therefore, ammonia can be used to effectively transport hydrogen for use in, for example, fuel cells in a vehicle.

Described in the present application are methods of producing silane-crosslinked polymer membranes at moderate temperatures using acid catalysts that, in certain embodiments, result in membranes with unexpectedly high permeabilities and selectivities. In certain embodiments, grafting and crosslinking of the silanes occur by immersing a preformed membrane in a solution comprising a silane and an acid catalyst. Alternatively, in certain embodiments, grafting of silanes to a polymer occurs in the presence of acid catalyst in solution and subsequent casting and drying produces crosslinked membranes. In certain embodiments, an acid catalyst is a weak acid catalyst. Also described in the present application are asymmetric crosslinked polymer membranes with porous layers. In certain embodiments, crosslinked cellulose acetate membranes have permeability up to an order of magnitude greater than the permeability of unmodified cellulose acetate membranes. The membranes have porous layers with a high porosity due to their processing in moderate conditions.

The invention belongs to the technical field of composite membrane, and in particular discloses a UIO-66-NH.sub.2 doped organosilicon high salinity wastewater treatment membrane and a preparation method thereof. The membrane is formed into UIO-66-NH.sub.2/organosilicon hybrid membrane on the prefabricated ceramic support surface through the dip-coating method by doping the UIO-66-NH.sub.2 metal-organic framework material into the organosilicon polymeric sol. The UIO-66-NH.sub.2/organosilicon hybrid membrane prepared by the present invention exhibits high water permeability (up to 1.6×10.sup.−10 m.sup.3/(m.sup.2 s Pa) and high salt retention (NaCl retention rate is more than 99.9.%) in the application of pervaporation desalination, and maintains stable membrane structure in the treatment process of TDS>5 wt % high salinity wastewater.