A forward osmosis membrane for seawater desalination and a method for preparing the same. The forward osmosis membrane has a composite membrane structure including a nonwoven fabric layer; a hydrophilic polymer layer; and a polyamide layer. The hydrophilic polymer layer formed on the nonwoven fabric layer facilitates an inflow of water from the feed water to the draw solution to enhance flux and realize high water permeability in the direction of osmosis. The polyamide layer not only secures contamination resistance and chemical resistance but also minimizes the back diffusion of salts of the draw solution in the direction of reverse osmosis. Hence, the forward osmosis membrane of the present invention is greatly useful for desalination of high-concentration seawater.

Provided are processes of removing particulate fouling from a filtration membrane or for preventing membrane fouling by particulate matter. A process capitalizes on reversal of a naturally occurring diisophoretic particle deposition to actively move particulate material away from a membrane. A process includes placing a microparticle including a salt in proximity to a membrane such that the microparticle creates a gradient generated spontaneous electric field or a gradient generated spontaneous chemiphoretic field in the solvent proximal to the membrane that actively draws charged particles away from the membrane thereby removing charged particulate matter away from the membrane or preventing its deposition.

A conductive nanoporous membrane system has a first ion exchange membrane formed from a nanoporous substrate that is coated with a metal or carbon or conductive polymers to form a conductive membrane, a second ion exchange membrane that is also formed from a nanoporous substrate coated with a metal to form a conductive membrane is positioned in spaced relation to the first conductive membrane and coupled to a voltage source; the negatively potential membrane acts as a cation exchange membrane in the presence of an electrolyte, and the positively connected electrode behave as anodic exchange membrane in the presence of an electrolyte due to the formation of electrical double layers at the interface between metal and liquid electrolyte.

A photodialysis device that can desalinate saline streams is described herein. The device can have a desalination rate that is significantly faster than current solar thermal desalination technology. Salt is removed from water by passing ionic current derived from sunlight through this water using dye-sensitized membranes. The device can serve as a distributed, low-cost technology that can efficiently and effectively desalinate low salinity sources of water, which is particularly useful for agriculture and drinking water applications.

The composite anion exchange membrane includes: a surface layer on a single surface or both surfaces of an anion exchange membrane substrate, in which the above-described surface layer contains a copolymer of a monomer A which is a water-soluble polyfunctional monomer and a monomer B which is a cationic monomer, an anion exchange capacity of the above-described surface layer is 0.05 meq/cm.sup.3 to 0.50 meq/cm.sup.3, and an anion exchange capacity of the above-described anion exchange membrane substrate is 1.0 meq/cm.sup.3 to 5.0 meq/cm.sup.3.

A cation-exchange membrane using a polyolefin-based substrate with reduced swelling of an ion-exchange resin and a low electrical resistance is provided. The cation-exchange membrane of the present invention includes a substrate made of polyolefin-based woven fabric, and a sulfonic acid group-containing cation-exchange resin. A portion of the cation-exchange membrane other than the substrate has 23 mass % or more to 35 mass % or less of polyvinyl chloride.

In one embodiment, a separation membrane includes: a porous support structure, wherein the porous support structure comprises a system of continuous pores connecting an inlet of the separation membrane to an outlet of the separation membrane; and at least one alkali metal hydroxide disposed within pores of the porous support structure. Other aspects and embodiments of the disclosed inventive concepts will become apparent from the detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the drawings, illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.

The present invention relates to synthetic membranes and use of these synthetic membranes for isolation of volatile organic compounds and purification of water. The synthetic membrane includes a hydrophobic polymer layer located on a polymeric membrane support layer. The invention includes a method of isolating volatile organic compounds with the synthetic membrane by contacting a volatile organic mixture with the hydrophobic polymer layer of the synthetic membrane and removing volatile organic compounds from the polymeric membrane support layer of the synthetic membrane by a process of pervaporation. The invention also includes a method of purifying water with the synthetic membrane by contacting an ionic solution with the hydrophobic polymer layer of the synthetic membrane and removing water from the polymeric membrane support layer of the synthetic membrane by a process of reverse osmosis. The invention also relates to methods of isolating non-polar gases by gas fractionation.

Disclosed herein are ceramic selective membranes and methods of forming the ceramic selective membranes by forming a selective silica ceramic on a porous membrane substrate.

Disclosed herein are porous asymmetric silicon membranes. The membranes are characterized by high structural stability, and as such are useful as anode components in lithium ion batteries.