The present invention provides a separation functional layer that exhibits suppressed leakage of an ionic liquid and has an enhanced strength. A separation functional layer of the present invention includes: an ionic liquid; a polymer A that forms a crystal structure in the ionic liquid; and a polymer B different from the polymer A. A separation membrane of the present invention includes: the separation functional layer; and a porous support member supporting the separation functional layer.

This disclosure concerns a method of forming a porous material, comprising impregnating a porous polymer with a pore-forming agent in order to form an impregnated polymer, and at least partially carbonising the impregnated polymer at a temperature of about 150? C. to about 500? C. in order to form the porous material. The porous material is characterised by a crystallinity of about 10% to about 70% relative to the porous polymer. This disclosure also concerns the porous material thereof.

A microporous polymeric composition including a matrix polymer having a fractional free volume of at least 0.1 and dispersed particles having a hypercrosslinked polymer.

Halogen-free, microporous polyolefin membranes are disclosed herein. The halogen-free, microporous polyolefin membranes can be manufactured using an environmentally friendly manufacturing process that includes extrusion of polymer-plasticizer mixtures followed by sheet formation and extraction of the plasticizer with a halogen-free solvent. The halogen-free solvent has a flashpoint greater than about 23 C. and an initial boiling point at least about 50 C. lower than the flashpoint of the plasticizer. The process can further be a closed loop process in which the halogen-free solvent can be reused.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a polyamide porous membrane that makes it possible to improve liquid permeability while suppressing deterioration of membrane separation performance. A polyamide porous membrane according to the present invention is formed from a polyamide resin, wherein in structural analysis by X-ray diffraction, the ratio of crystals with respect to the total amount of a crystals and crystals is not less than 38%.

Novel carbon molecular sieve (CMS) compositions comprising carbonized vinylidene chloride copolymer having micropores with an average micropore size ranging from 3.0 to 5.0. These materials offer capability in separations of gas mixtures including, for example, propane/propylene; nitrogen/methane; and ethane/ethylene. Such may be prepared by a process wherein vinylidene chloride copolymer beads, melt extruded film or fiber are pretreated to form a precursor that is finally carbonized at high temperature. Preselection or knowledge of precursor crystallinity and attained maximum pyrolysis temperature enables preselection or knowledge of a average micropore size, according to the equation ?=6.09+(0.0275C)(0.00233T), wherein ? is the average micropore size in Angstroms, C is the crystallinity percentage and T is the attained maximum pyrolysis temperature in degrees Celsius, provided that crystallinity percentage ranges from 25 to 75 and temperature in degrees Celsius ranges from 800 to 1700. The beads, fibers or film may be ground, post-pyrolysis, and combined with a non-coating binder to form extruded pellets, or alternatively the fibers may be woven, either before or after pre-treatment, to form a woven fiber sheet which is thereafter pyrolyzed to form a woven fiber adsorbent.

This composite hollow fiber membrane comprises a gas-permeable non-porous homogeneous layer which has a polyolefin resin (A) as the main component and a porous support layer which is made of a polyolefin resin (B) and which supports said non-porous homogeneous layer, and the composite hollow fiber membrane is characterized in that the polyolefin resin (A) of non-porous homogeneous layer is a block copolymer of ethylene units and at least one type of olefin unit selected from -olefin units having a carbon number of 3-20. By this means, a gas-permeable composite hollow fiber membrane is provided which has good gas permeability, reduces the impact of condensate on the performance of a gas dissolving module, and has excellent elution properties.

The present disclosure relates to an ultra-thin polymer separation membrane including: a porous polymer support layer; a gutter layer formed on the porous polymer support layer; and a semi-crystalline polymer selection layer formed on the gutter layer, wherein the semi-crystalline polymer selection layer is coated with a nanometer-level thickness in a state in which the temperature of a semi-crystalline polymer solution is 0 C. to 50 C. Therefore, the crystallinity and orientation of the ultra-thin polymer separation membrane, essentially required for the scale-up of a separation membrane process and the actual application in the industry, can be controlled easily using a low-temperature coating method, in which the temperature of the polymer solution is lowered, during the coating of the selection layer. Furthermore, separation performance can be enhanced remarkably by using only polymers as raw materials, without additional additives that have been used in the manufacturing of conventional ultra-thin polymer separation membranes.

A degassing method of removing a dissolved gas from a liquid and a gas exchange method of exchanging a dissolved gas in a liquid and a gas component in a gas phase include a method using a separation membrane. To provide a separation membrane having solvent resistance while maintaining high gas permeability using poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) excellent in solvent resistance and gas permeability. To achieve the object, there is provided a separation membrane containing poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) as a main component and including a surface layer and an inner layer, at least one surface layer having lamellar crystals, wherein micropores are provided on the surface layer having the lamellar crystals, an opening ratio is 0.1% to 10% when a ratio of the micropores to a membrane surface is taken as the opening ratio and the membrane surface is 100%, and an average pore size of the micropores is 3 nm to 30 nm.

A method of manufacturing a carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane includes forming one or more hollow fibers, the one or more hollow fibers including a polyvinylidene chloride copolymer; exposing the one or more hollow fibers to a caustic solution, wherein the caustic solution includes a strong base and a solvent; applying a tension at opposite ends of the one or more hollow fibers, thereby maintaining the one or more hollow fibers in a straight shape; pretreating the one or more hollow fibers under the tension by heating at a first temperature of from 120 C. to 200 C. with air, an inert gas, or combinations thereof; pyrolyzing the one or more hollow fibers at a second temperature of from 500 C. to 1500 C. with inert gas; and bundling the one or more hollow fibers to form the CMS membrane.