Cation exchange membranes and materials including silica-based ceramics, and associated methods, are provided. In some aspects, cation exchange membranes that include a silica-based ceramic that forms a coating on and/or within a porous support membrane are described. The cation exchange membranes and materials may have certain structural or chemical attributes (e.g., pore size/distribution, chemical functionalization) that, alone or in combination, can result in advantageous performance characteristics in any of a variety of applications for which selective transport of positively charged ions through membranes/materials is desired. In some embodiments, the silica-based ceramic contains relatively small pores (e.g., substantially spherical nanopores) that may contribute to some such advantageous properties. In some embodiments, the cation exchange membrane or material includes sulfonate and/or sulfonic acid groups covalently bound to the silica-based ceramic.

A method for manufacturing an ion exchange membrane is provided. The method for manufacturing an ion exchange membrane, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the step of electrospinning a support fiber producing solution and an ion exchange fiber producing solution respectively to prepare a laminate in which a support fiber mat consisting of a support fiber and an ion exchange fiber mat consisting of an ion exchange fiber are alternatively laminated. According to the present invention, it is possible to simply control factors, such as the thickness, electroconductivity and mechanical strength of the membrane, and the diameter/ratio of a pore, etc. to be suitable for the use of ion exchange membrane during the manufacturing process, to simplify the manufacturing process. As such, the ion exchange membrane manufactured by the method can be utilized as a universal ion exchange membrane which has a large ion exchange capacity, a small electrical resistance, and a small diffusion coefficient as well as excellent mechanical strength and durability.

A method for enhancing a sorbent membrane for carbon dioxide capture is disclosed. The method includes applying a layer of a hydrophobic material to at least one surface of the sorbent membrane. The hydrophobic material may be one of a polysioxane, a silicone compound, and a fluoroacrylic copolymer. The sorbent membrane may be an anionic exchange membrane, and may have a quaternary ammonium functional group. The layer of hydrophobic material reduces the amount of water used in the carbon dioxide capture process, and relaxes the water quality constraints.

This disclosure provides certain strong cation-modified ion exchange resins and membranes useful for carrying out the removal of metal and metal ion contaminants in fluid compositions. Filtered liquid compositions with significantly reduced amounts of metals can be used in a microelectronic manufacturing process, such as liquids for removing photoresist. The cation-modified ion exchange resins and membranes of the disclosure can be configured for use in a microelectronic manufacturing system, which can be utilized in the system as a point of use metal-removal feature for liquids entering the system. Advantageously, the filter materials and methods of this disclosure showed considerable improvement in preventing degradation and the formation of color bodies and dimeric and oligomeric materials from ketones (e.g., cyclohexanone) in the liquid compositions while not compromising the filter material's ability to remove undesired metal ions.

The disclosure relates to a membrane and method for its manufacture, the method including the steps of providing of an ultrafiltration membrane, and modification of the resultant ultrafiltration membrane to provide an asymmetric porous ion exchange membrane. The modification of the ultrafiltration membrane is typically carried out by exposing said ultrafiltration membrane to a first functional reagent to provide a cross-linked ultrafiltration membrane, and then exposing said cross-lined ultrafiltration membrane to a second functional reagent to introduce positive charged groups to produce an anion exchange membrane.

An object of the present invention is to provide a chemical liquid purification method which makes it possible to obtain a chemical liquid having excellent defect inhibition performance. The chemical liquid purification method according to an embodiment of the present invention is a chemical liquid purification method including obtaining a chemical liquid by filtering a substance to be purified containing an organic solvent by using two or more kinds of filters having different pore sizes, in which a supply pressure P.sub.1 of the substance to be purified supplied to a filter F.sub.max having a maximum pore size X.sub.1 among the two or more kinds of filters and a supply pressure P.sub.2 of the substance to be purified supplied to a filter F.sub.min having a minimum pore size X.sub.2 among the two or more kinds of filters satisfy P.sub.1>P.sub.2.

The present invention relates to an ionic liquid-containing structure including an ionic liquid composed of a pair of a cation and an anion, in which a HOMO energy level of the anion is higher than an LUMO energy level of the cation, and a difference between the HOMO energy level of the anion and the LUMO energy level of the cation is 0.2 a.u. or more.

An electrochemical compressor utilizes an anion conducting layer disposed between an anode and a cathode for transporting a working fluid. The working fluid may include carbon dioxide that is dissolved in water and is partially converted to carbonic acid that is equilibrium with bicarbonate anion. An electrical potential across the anode and cathode creates a pH gradient that drives the bicarbonate anion across the anion conducting layer to the cathode, wherein it is reformed into carbon dioxide. Therefore, carbon dioxide is pumped across the anion conducting layer. The compressor may be part of a refrigeration system that pumps the working fluid in a closed loop through a condenser and an evaporator.

The present inventive concept relates to a chemically modified anion exchange membrane and a method of preparing the same and, more particularly, an anion exchange membrane in which sulfonic acid groups in a perfluorinated sulfonic acid electrolyte membrane are substituted with anion conductive groups such as ammonium group, phosphonium group, imidazolium group, pyridinium group and sulfonium group, and a method of preparing an anion exchange membrane by chemically modifying sulfonic acid groups in a perfluorinated sulfonic acid electrolyte membrane.

Chemically inert, mechanically tough, cationic metallo-polyelectrolytes designed as durable anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cobaltocenium-containing cyclooctene with triazole as the only linker group, followed by backbone hydrogenation to provide a new class of AEMs with a polyethylene-like framework and alkaline-stable cobaltocenium cation for ion transport, which exhibit excellent thermal, chemical and mechanical stability, as well as high ion conductivity.