The present invention provides a method for making a porous silica aerogel composite membrane. The porous silicon oxide aerogel composite membrane includes a porous aluminum oxide membrane having a plurality of macro pores with an average diameter larger than 50 nm and a porous silica aerogel membrane formed on at least one side of the porous aluminum oxide membrane and the macro pores of surface layers of the porous aluminum oxide membrane where the porous silica aerogel membrane has a plurality of meso pores with an average diameter of 250 nm and is derived from methyltrimethoxysilane precursor by a sol-gel synthetic method.

Provided is an acidic gas-containing gas treatment separation membrane in which an intermediate layer provided on a support member is optimized, and which can treat and separate a gas mixture containing acidic gas and methane gas and/or nitrogen gas into the gas components, and thereby efficiently obtain acidic gas or methane gas and/or nitrogen gas. The acidic gas-containing gas treatment separation membrane includes an inorganic porous support member, an intermediate layer containing a polysiloxane network structure material and formed on a surface of the inorganic porous support member, and a separation layer containing a hydrocarbon group-containing polysiloxane network structure material and formed on the intermediate layer.

A method for manufacturing a silica membrane filter includes performing, at least once, a fired membrane forming operation having a membrane forming step of applying, to a porous substrate, a precursor sol which is a sol of a silicon alcoxide including a p-tolyl group to form a precursor sol membrane, a drying step of drying the precursor sol membrane formed in the porous substrate to form a dried membrane, and a firing step of firing the dried membrane formed in the porous substrate to form a fired membrane, thereby preparing the silica membrane filter including the porous substrate and a silica membrane which is the fired membrane formed in the porous substrate, and a ratio of a total mass of the silica membrane to a total mass of the dried membrane is 38 mass % or more and 85 mass % or less.

A method for making a graphene oxide membrane and a resulting free-standing graphene oxide membrane that provides desired qualities of water permeability and selectivity at larger sizes, thinner cross sections, and with increased ruggedness as compared to existing membranes and processes.

The present invention provides a porous silica aerogel composite membrane and method for making the same and a carbon dioxide sorption device. The porous silicon oxide aerogel composite membrane includes a porous aluminum oxide membrane having a plurality of macro pores with an average diameter larger than 50 nm and a porous silica aerogel membrane formed on at least one side of the porous aluminum oxide membrane and the macro pores of surface layers of the porous aluminum oxide membrane where the porous silica aerogel membrane has a plurality of meso pores with an average diameter of 250 nm and is derived from methyltrimethoxysilane precursor by a sol-gel synthetic method.

A liquid composition for forming a silica porous film of the invention is prepared by mixing a hydrolyzate of tetramethoxysilane or tetraethoxysilane as a silicon alkoxide with a silica sol in which fumed silica particles having primary particles having a mean particle diameter of 40 nm or less and secondary particles having a mean particle diameter of 20 nm to 400 nm, that is greater than the mean particle diameter of the primary particles, are dispersed in a liquid medium, in which the mass ratio (AB) of the SiO.sub.2 content (B) of the silica sol to the SiO.sub.2 content (A) in the hydrolyzate is in a range of 1/99 to 60/40.

A gas separation membrane including a porous layered support; and a gas separating active layer which is disposed on the porous layered support and includes a functionalized graphene.

Nanoporous selective sol-gel ceramic membranes, selective-membrane structures, and related methods are described. Representative ceramic selective membranes include ion-conductive membranes (e.g., proton-conducting membranes) and gas selective membranes. Representative uses for the membranes include incorporation into fuel cells and redox flow batteries (RFB) as ion-conducting membranes.

Stabilized surfactant-based membranes and methods of manufacture thereof. Membranes comprising a stabilized surfactant mesostructure on a porous support may be used for various separations, including reverse osmosis and forward osmosis. The membranes are stabilized after evaporation of solvents; in some embodiments no removal of the surfactant is required. The surfactant solution may or may not comprise a hydrophilic compound such as an acid or base. The surface of the porous support is preferably modified prior to formation of the stabilized surfactant mesostructure. The membrane is sufficiently stable to be utilized in commercial separations devices such as spiral wound modules. Also a stabilized surfactant mesostructure coating for a porous material and filters made therefrom. The coating can simultaneously improve both the permeability and the filtration characteristics of the porous material.

Methods of preparing a porous robust support to host an ultra-thin enzyme-assisted membrane, and a new membrane system that can be used for gas filtration purposes to remove/separate carbon dioxide or other gases from a gas mixture such as those from power production or enhanced oil recovery or fuel production or air and recycle/collect/utilize carbon dioxide are disclosed herein. A method may include protecting the surface with a blocking material and polishing the protected surface, coating a thin layer of silica nanospheres onto the polished surface, coating a silica sol-gel and surfactant solution onto the nanospheres, and then removing the surfactant and blocking material to generate a well-defined porous structure with nanochannels.