The present invention pertains to composition suitable for manufacturing membranes based on vinylidene fluoride (VDF) polymers, to porous membranes thereof, to methods for their manufacture and to uses thereof, especially for the filtration of water phases. Said composition comprising vinylidene fluoride (VDF) polymers and polymer additives comprising zwitterionic moieties delivers outstanding hydrophilization performances of manufactured membranes.

A bilayer electrospun membranes for treating hydraulic fracking wastewater via membrane distillation, and more particularly to bilayer electrospun membranes having an omniphobic layer to prevent low-surface tension solution wicking and an oleophobic antifouling surface to prevent foulant depositing on the membrane. Nanoparticles are decorated on the omniphobic surface through electrochemical interaction, which is coated with a fluorine monomer on the nanoparticles. A zwitterionic co-polymer is grafted using self-assembly between hydroxy groups on the antifouling surface generated by alkaline treatment and anchor segment epoxy groups on zwitterionic co-polymer.

The invention is in the field of methods for preparing polymer films, and of such polymer films. The method involves phase separation and requires only aqueous solution, eliminating the need for organic solvents. The aqueous phase separation involves contacting a polymer solution comprising a trigger-responsive polymer with an aqueous coagulation solution in which the trigger-responsive polymer is not soluble.

Provided is a laminate having low air permeability and excellent moisture permeability in a low temperature and low humidity environment. The laminate is provided with a porous substrate and a moisture-permeable membrane disposed on one side of the porous substrate, the laminate having an air resistance of 3000 seconds/100 cc or greater based on the Gurley method according to JIS P8117-2009 and a first moisture permeability of 300 g/(m.sup.2.Math.24 h) or greater based on a moisture permeability testing method (the cup method) according to JIS Z0208-1976 under the conditions of a temperature of 5° C., a relative humidity of 45%, and a wind speed of 0.2 m/s or less.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) membrane having a predetermined porosity via salt dilution induced phase separation, in which a liquid polymer solution (P) containing polyanions (A) and polycations (C) dissolved in an aqueous medium at an overcritical salt concentration is exposed to an aqueous medium.

Disclosed are copolymers, comprising a plurality of zwitterionic repeat units, and a plurality of hydrophobic repeat units, wherein the hydrophobic repeat units each independently comprises a cross-linkable moiety; the cross-linked copolymer network, comprising such copolymer; as well as thin film composite membrane comprising such cross-linked copolymer network.

This disclosure relates to membranes containing a polymer containing crown ether monomer units and a guest compound capable of binding thereto. This disclosure also relates to methods for making the membranes, and to methods for using the membranes for gas separation applications.

A thin film composite membrane (TFC) includes an active layer on a support. The active layer includes at least 8 barrier layers of star-polymers each having at least three linear polymers attached at a central core. Each of the barrier layers has a thickness between 5 and 50 nm, and the barrier layers have alternating charge.

Functionalized membranes for use in applications, such as electrodeionization, can be prepared simply and efficiently by contacting a conductive carbon nanotube and polymer membrane with a solution containing at least one electrochemically active and functional compound under conditions suitable for electrochemically depositing the electrochemically active and function compound on a surface of the membrane.

Provided is a blood processing filter comprising a container having two spouts serving as an inlet for a liquid to be processed and an outlet for the processed liquid, and a filtration medium contained in the container, the filtration medium comprising a filter material having different CWST values for one surface A and the other surface B.