A thin-film composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane with anti-bacterial and anti-biofouling effects and a preparation method thereof are disclosed. The preparation method includes: dissolving a highly water-stable metal organic framework CuBTTri in an n-hexane solution containing trimesoyl chloride by ultrasonic wave, immersing a polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane in an aqueous solution of m-phenylene diamine and taking out, and then immersing the ultrafiltration membrane in the trimesoyl chloride-n-hexane solution containing the aforementioned metal organic framework for reaction and modification, so as to obtain the thin-film composite polyamide reverse osmosis membrane. The resulting composite reverse osmosis membrane integrated with the anti-bacterial metal organic framework CuBTTri has a high reverse osmosis membrane permeability and possesses greatly improved and persistent anti-bacterial and anti-biofouling properties. The preparation method is simple and conducive to promotion, and has mild conditions.

Multicomponent copolymers including two or more types of repeat units is presented. In one example, the multicomponent copolymer includes at least one repeat unit AC having a structure (I), at least one repeat unit DC having a structure (II), and at least one repeat unit BC having a structure (III) or (V). The multicomponent copolymer may be cross-linked via a cross-linking agent. A polymer blend including the multicomponent copolymer or a cross-linked copolymer and a second polymer is also provided. The multicomponent copolymer may be a random or a block copolymer. The structural units of the multicomponent copolymers provide improved, tunable properties, such as improved biocompatibility and hydrophilicity, protein fouling, and mechanical properties, to the copolymers and/or the membranes fabricated from the copolymers.

A device for continuous seawater desalination of and a method thereof. A hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane is made of a hydrophobic polymer and carbon-based materials, and the carbon-based materials are, such as, carbon nanotubes or graphene. The hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane is perforated to obtain the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane having micrometer-nanometer multi-level pore structure using laser light. Further, a surface is coated with a photothermal-electrothermal responsive polymer to increase electric joule heat and photothermal effects to increase energy utilization efficiencies, and the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite membrane having multi-level pore structure and electrothermal effects and photothermal effects is finally obtained. A device is designed, a hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite porous membrane is applied to electro-induced and light-induced seawater desalination, and conditions are controlled to enable the hydrophobic carbon nanotube composite porous membrane to generate heat.

Disclosed are linear/random/statistical copolymers comprising three types of monomeric units: hydrophobic monomeric units, zwitterionic monomeric units, and charged or ionizable monomeric units. Also provided are thin film composite membranes whose selective layer is comprised of the copolymers disclosed herein, and the methods of use thereof.

The present invention relates to a composite semipermeable membrane including: a substrate; a porous support layer disposed on the substrate; and a separation functional layer disposed on the porous support layer, in which the separation functional layer includes: a first layer including a crosslinked aromatic polyamide; and a coating layer existing on the first layer and including an aliphatic polyamide including a fluorine atom, and the composite semipermeable membrane has a proportion of the number of fluorine atoms to the total number of atoms of all elements of 0.5% or more and 8% or less, and has a ratio (N/O ratio) of the number of nitrogen atoms to the number of oxygen atoms of 0.8 or more and 1.3 or less.

This invention relates generally to a chitosan-graphene oxide membrane and process of making the same. The nanocomposite membrane can filter water and remove contaminants without fouling like other commercially-available polymer-based water filters. The membrane can be used as a flat sheet filter or can be engineered in a spiral filtration module. The membrane is scalable and tunable for many water contaminants including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, and other organic chemicals. The membrane uses chitosan, which is low-cost, renewable biopolymer typically considered to be a waste product and the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth, thus making the membrane an environmentally-friendly product choice.

Described is a polyethylene membrane and in particular an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene member that provides a high air permeability and is hydrophobic. The membranes have small pores and are suitable for sterilization by exposure to gamma radiation. The membranes can be made by methods that involve one or more of stretching the membrane and grafting hydrophobic monomers onto the membrane surface. A perfluorinated monomer, such as perfluoro-n-octyl acrylate, can be grafted to one or more surfaces of the membrane. The membrane have a high flow rate compared to unstretched or ungrafted membranes.

The invention is an improved method of making a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane in which a polyimide precursor polymer is pyrolyzed to form a carbon molecular sieve membrane by heating, in a furnace, said polyimide precursor polymer to a final pyrolysis temperature of 600 C to 700 C at a pyrolysis heating rate of 3 to 7 C/minute from 400 C to the final pyrolysis temperature, the final pyrolysis temperature being held for a pyrolysis time of at most 60 minutes in a non-oxidizing atmosphere. In a particular embodiment, the cooling rate from the pyrolysis temperature is accelerated by methods to remove heat. The CMS membranes have shown an improved combination of selectivity and permeance as well as being particularly suitable to separate gases in gas streams such methane from natural gas, oxygen from air and ethylene or propylene from light hydrocarbon streams.

A semipermeable arrangement for use in clinical, agricultural, industrial and/or environmental settings. The semipermeable arrangement has a structural arrangement formed from a material such as ePTFE that has an affinity to a lubricating fluid such as perfluorocarbon. The structural arrangement may be infused with a lubricating fluid such that the semipermeable arrangement resists fouling. The semipermeable arrangement is further arranged with barriers to prevent or limit the movement of the lubricating fluid through at least part of the structural arrangement. The semipermeable arrangement further has passageways that are free from the presence of, and/or cannot be infused with, lubricating fluid. The passageways permit the movement of fluids such as air, water and dissolved substances through the structural arrangement. The semipermeable arrangement is thereby both self-cleaning and porous and has a wide range of uses.

A method is disclosed for forming a microporous membrane that incorporates an additive having low water solubility at the membrane's active surface from a precipitation fluid. The incorporated additive at the membrane's active surface can improve one or more of the membrane's hydrophilicity, wettability, anti-fouling behavior, blood compatibility, and stability over long periods of use or repetitive use. The microporous membrane with this modified active surface can be a hollow fiber, flat sheet, or other self-supporting shape. The microporous membranes can be used for membrane filtering or a solute and/or solvent exchange process, which involve contacting aqueous-based fluid or blood with the microporous membrane, such processes for dialysis, blood oxygenation, or blood separation filtering, or other processes.