This invention relates to uses of graphene oxide, and in particular graphene oxide on a porous support, and a membrane comprising these materials. This invention also relates to methods of dehydration, which include vapour phase separation and pervaporation. Pervaporation is a method of separating mixtures of liquids using a membrane. Pervaporation consists of two basic steps: permeation of the permeate through the membrane and evaporation of the permeate from the other side of the membrane. Pervaporation is a mild which can be used to separate components which would not survive the comparatively harsh conditions needed for distillation (high temp, and/or low pressure).

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.

An electrospun polymer nanofibrous membrane that provides high filtering efficiency and excellent porosity is disclosed herein. The membrane may be treated with one or more antimicrobial or antiviral agents. The treatment may preferably be a coating of one or more antiviral agents on the surface of the membrane. Alternatively, one or more antiviral agents may be impregnated into the membrane. The membrane may additionally or alternatively be impregnated with one or more metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The membrane has a high filtering efficiency and sufficient porosity to provide breathability characteristics. In some embodiments, the membrane is suitable for use in making facemasks and respirators that are highly resistant to infectious pathogens and/or other small particulates. In some embodiments, the membrane is suitable for use in HVAC applications. In some embodiments, the membrane is suitable for use in removal of VOCs and CO.sub.2 in conjunction with a carbon nanofiber membrane.

An improved method for concentrating dispersions of graphene oxide, coating a substrate with a layer of a graphene oxide solution, and producing a supported graphene membrane stabilised by controlled deoxygenation; and graphene-based membranes that demonstrate ultra-fast water transport, precise molecular sieving of gas and solvated molecules, and which show great promise as novel separation platforms.

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.

Functionalized membranes for use in applications, such as electrodeionization, can be prepared simply and efficiently by contacting a conductive carbon nanotube and polymer membrane with a solution containing at least one electrochemically active and functional compound under conditions suitable for electrochemically depositing the electrochemically active and function compound on a surface of the membrane.

A thin micro-porous membrane sheet and filtering device using it is presented. The membrane sheet includes a thin porous metal sheet of thickness between 20 and 200 μm with a porous ceramic coating of thickness less than 25 μm on at least one of its surfaces. The porous metal sheet has mean pore sizes at micro and sub-micrometer level and has a surface substantially free of pores greater than 10 micrometers. The ceramic coating layer may be made of particles with a mean particle size in a range of 10 to 300 nm and contains certain sintering promoters. The ceramic coating is sintered with the metal sheet in non-oxidizing environment at lower temperatures than typical ceramic membranes. The thin membrane sheet is used to filter fine particulates from micrometers to nanometers from a liquid or gas stream. The thin membrane sheet may be assembled into a filter device having high surface area packing density and straight mini-flow channels.

A hydrogen permeable membrane device is provided that includes a porous ceramic layer having a material that includes zirconia, Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), γ/Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and/or YSZ— γ/Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and a porous Pd film or porous Pd-alloy film deposited on the a mesoporous ceramic layer.

Provided are a porous substrate structure and a manufacturing method thereof. The porous substrate structure includes a substrate, an anodic aluminum oxide layer and a double metal oxide layer. The substrate has a plurality of pores. The anodic aluminum oxide layer is disposed on the substrate. The double metal oxide layer is disposed on the anodic aluminum oxide layer.

The present invention relates to a new method for creating nanopores in single layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS.sub.2) nanosheets (NSs) by the electrospray deposition (ESD) of silver ions on a water suspension of the former. Electrospray deposited silver ions react with the MoS.sub.2 NSs at the liquid-air interface resulting in Ag.sub.2S nanoparticles (NPs) which goes into the solution leaving the NSs with holes of 3-5 nm diameter. Specific reaction with the S of MoS.sub.2 NSs leads to Mo-rich edges. Such Mo-rich defects are highly efficient for the generation of active oxygen species such as H.sub.2O.sub.2, under visible light, which causes efficient disinfection of water. The holey MoS.sub.2 NSs shows 10.sup.5 times higher efficiency in disinfection compared to normal MoS.sub.2 NSs. Developed a conceptual prototype and tested with multiple bacterial strains and a viral strain, demonstrating the utility of the method for practical applications.