Provided herein are methods for making a freeze-cast material having a internal structure, the methods comprising steps of: determining the internal structure of the material, the internal structure having a plurality of pores, wherein: each of the plurality of pores has directionality; and the step of determining comprises: selecting a temperature gradient and a freezing front velocity to obtain the determined internal structure based on the selected temperature gradient and the selected freezing front velocity; directionally freezing a liquid formulation to form a frozen solid, the step of directionally freezing comprising: controlling the temperature gradient and the freezing front velocity to match the selected temperature gradient and the selected freezing front velocity during directionally freezing; wherein the liquid formulation comprises at least one solvent and at least one dispersed species; and subliming the at least one solvent out of the frozen solid to form the material.

A surface-modified filter membrane for filtering blood, in particular for separating blood plasma and blood serum, and a method for the production thereof, a filter provided therewith and the use thereof.

A power generation system, includes: a fuel cell that includes a negative electrode and a positive electrode and is configured to generate electric power by chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen; a separator that includes an oxygen-permselective separation membrane and is configured to obtain permeated gas and non-permeated gas from mixed gas; and a positive electrode gas supply passage through which the mixed gas is supplied to the separator and the obtained permeated gas is supplied to the positive electrode. The separation membrane includes a porous support layer and a separation functional layer provided on the porous support layer. The separation functional layer contains at least one kind of chemical compound selected from the group consisting of polyamide, graphene, MOF (Metal Organic Framework), and COF (Covalent Organic Framework).

A power generation system, includes: a fuel cell that includes a negative electrode and a positive electrode and is configured to generate electric power by chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen; a separator that includes a hydrogen-permselective separation membrane and is configured to obtain permeated gas and non-permeated gas from mixed gas; and a negative electrode gas supply passage configured to supply the mixed gas containing hydrogen to the separator and supply the permeated gas obtained by the separator to the negative electrode. The separation membrane includes a porous support layer and a separation functional layer provided on the porous support layer. The separation functional layer contains at least one kind of chemical compound selected from the group consisting of polyamide, graphene, MOF (Metal Organic Framework), and COF (Covalent Organic Framework).

An ultrafiltration/nanofiltration membrane with gas-tunable pore size is provided. This membrane comprises an active layer arranged between two porous support layers, wherein the active layer is formed of randomly arranged cellulose nanocrystals, wherein pores are defined in the active layer by the free spaces existing between the randomly arranged cellulose nanocrystals, and wherein chains of a CO.sub.2-responsive polymer are grafted on the surface of the cellulose nanocrystals. There are also provided methods for filtering a feed using the membrane, for tuning the apparent pore size/MWCO/charge of the membrane, for cleaning the membrane, and for manufacturing the membrane.

A power generation system, includes: a fuel cell that includes a negative electrode supplied with hydrogen-containing gas and a positive electrode supplied with oxygen-containing gas, and is configured to generate electric power by chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen; a separator that includes a hydrogen-permselective separation membrane and is configured to obtain permeated gas and non-permeated gas from mixed gas; and a circulating passage through which negative electrode-side exhaust gas of the fuel cell is sent to the separator, and through which the permeated gas is supplied to the negative electrode. The separation membrane includes a porous support layer and a separation functional layer provided on the porous support layer. The separation functional layer contains at least one kind of chemical compound selected from the group consisting of polyamide, graphene, MOF (Metal Organic Framework), and COF (Covalent Organic Framework).

Methods of making blended, isoporous, asymmetric (graded) films (e.g. ultrafiltration membranes) comprising two or more chemically distinct block copolymers and blended, isoporous, asymmetric (graded) films (e.g. ultrafiltration membranes) comprising two or more chemically distinct block copolymers. The generation of blended membranes by mixing two chemically distinct block copolymers in the casting solution demonstrates a pathway to advanced asymmetric block copolymer derived films, which can be used as ultrafiltration membranes, in which different pore surface chemistries and associated functionalities can be integrated into a single membrane via standard membrane fabrication, i.e. without requiring laborious post-fabrication modification steps. The block copolymers may be diblock, triblock and/or multiblock mixes and some block copolymers in the mix may be functionally modified. Triblock copolymers comprising a reactive group (e.g., sulfhydryl group) terminated block and films comprising the triblock copolymers.

According to an embodiment, there is provided a polymer electrolyte membrane, comprising a polymer film including a styrene-based resin, a polyolefin-based resin, and an olefin-based elastomer resin. The polymer film is bonded with a sulfonic acid group (—SO3H) capable of cation exchange through a sulfonation reaction.

The present invention relates to a crosslinked unreinforced cellulose hydrate membrane crosslinked using at least two different crosslinking agents, to a method for the production thereof and to the use of the crosslinked unreinforced cellulose hydrate membrane according to the invention.

A porous membrane includes a modacrylic copolymer. The modacrylic copolymer includes, with respect to 100 parts by mass of all structural units constituting the modacrylic copolymer, 15 to 85 parts by mass of a structural unit derived from acrylonitrile, 15 to 85 parts by mass of a structural unit derived from at least one halogen-containing monomer selected from the group consisting of vinyl halide and vinylidene halide, and 0 to 10 parts by mass of a structural unit derived from a vinyl monomer having an ionic substituent. The porous membrane can be produced by preparing a modacrylic copolymer solution by dissolving the modacrylic copolymer in a solvent, and bringing the modacrylic copolymer solution into contact with a non-solvent for the modacrylic copolymer such that the modacrylic copolymer solution is solidified.