A composite body comprising a porous layer (1) made from oxide particles connected to one another and partially to a substrate, containing at least one oxide of the elements Al, Zr, Ti or Si, and comprising a further porous layer (2) at least on one side, having oxide particles connected to one another and partially to the layer (1) and containing at least one oxide of the elements Al, Zr, Ti or Si, wherein the oxide particles in the layer (1) have a greater average particle size (d.sub.50 is 0.5 to 4 μm) than the oxide particles in the layer (2) (d.sub.50 is 0.015 to 0.15 μm), characterised in that a polymer coating (PB) is provided on or above the layer (2), containing one or more polysiloxanes. A method for producing corresponding composite bodies and to the use thereof.

A graphene oxide-based membrane There is provided a graphene oxide-based membrane comprising a substrate and a plurality of layers of single-layered graphene oxide formed on the substrate, each of the plurality of layers of single-layered graphene oxide is functionalised by at least one diamine functional group, wherein interlayer spacing between two adjacent layers of single-layered graphene oxide is ≤ 10 Å. The membrane may be comprised in an electrocapacitive unit. There is also provided a method of forming the membrane.

A method for making a graphene membrane includes applying a suspension of graphene platelets in a fluid onto a porous substrate, and applying a pressure differential to force the fluid through the substrate to yield a filtered fluid while retaining the graphene platelets on the substrate. The graphene platelets and the substrate form the graphene membrane.

An evaporative cooling system includes a porous ceramic body with a plurality of dry channels and a plurality of wet channels. The plurality of dry channels are configured to inhibit transfer of water vapor into the dry channels and include a barrier layer that includes a roughened layer with a features size less than 1000 nm and a hydrophobic chemical modification disposed on the roughened layer. The plurality of wet channels are configured to allow transfer of water vapor.

A filter for the filtration of a fluid, such as a liquid, includes or is composed of a support element made of a porous ceramic material, the element exhibiting a tubular or parallelepipedal shape delimited by an external surface and including, in its internal portion, a set of adjacent channels with axes parallel to one another and separated from one another by walls of the porous inorganic material, in which at least a portion of the channels and/or at least a portion of the external surface are covered with a porous separating membrane layer, wherein the separating membrane layer is made of a material essentially composed of silicon carbide (SiC), and the content by weight of elemental nitrogen of the layer constituting the porous separating membrane layer is between 0.1% and 2%.

A filter for the filtration of a fluid, such as a liquid, includes or composed of a support element made of a porous ceramic material, the element having a tubular or parallelepipedal shape delimited by an external surface and including, in its internal portion, a set of adjacent channels with axes parallel to one another and separated from one another by walls of the porous inorganic material, wherein at least a portion of the channels and/or at least a portion of the external surface are covered with a porous separating membrane layer, wherein the layer is made of a material essentially composed of sintered grains of silicon carbide (SiC), and the weight content of elemental oxygen of the layer is less than 0.5%.

A filtration membrane is provided. It comprises a porous support substrate and a porous active layer on top of the support substrate, wherein the active layer is formed of a network of interconnected, randomly arranged ceramic splats with ceramic particles occupying interstices between the splats, and wherein free spaces between the particles define a network of interconnected pores extending through the thickness of the active layer. There are also provided a method of filtering a feed using the membrane and a method of manufacturing the membrane by suspension plasma spraying.

A porous sintered clay mineral matrix that contains aluminum and is doped with 0.1-20 mol %, based on the amount of the aluminum, one or more transition metals, one or more post-transition metals, one or more rare earth metals, or a combination thereof. An example is a kaolinite matrix. The matrix can be made from a calcined clay mineral powder that contains aluminum and is doped with at least one of these metals. Also disclosed are methods of preparing the above-described matrix and powder.

Embodiments described herein relate generally to durable graphene oxide membranes for fluid filtration. For example, the graphene oxide membranes can be durable under high temperatures non-neutral pH, and/or high pressures. One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a filtration apparatus comprising: a support substrate, and a graphene oxide membrane disposed on the support substrate. The graphene oxide membrane has a first lactose rejection rate of at least 50% with a first 1 wt % lactose solution at room temperature. The graphene oxide membrane has a second lactose rejection rate of at least 50% with a second 1 wt % lactose solution at room temperature after the graphene oxide membrane is contacted with a solution that is at least 80° C. for a period of time.

Mesoporous membranes have shown promising separation performance with a potential to lower the energy consumption, leading to a dramatic cost reduction. Recently, an extensive effort has been made on the design of membranes which brought a significant progress toward the synthesis of well-defined porous morphologies, most of which synthesized by surfactant-template methodology. Currently, the most well-designed state-of-the-art membranes using this technique are made from metals, polymers, carbon, silica, etc. In the present invention, we demonstrate mesoporous calcium-silicate particles having superior separation capacity and optimal permeability, thereby leading to reduced energy consumption for selective separation of gases/liquids and/or the combination thereof. We explore various methods to improve the calcium-silicate membranes properties by tuning pore density during the synthesis/aging process, while favoring the formation of uniformly distributed nanopores. Lowering particle density by controlling calcium to silicon ratio along with optimizing the surface area are essential in achieving our objective.