A porous membrane with a molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) greater than about 10 kDa, and a coating on at least a portion of a major surface of the porous membrane. The coating includes a star polymer having a hydrophobic core and hydrophilic arms, wherein the hydrophobic core contacts the porous membrane.

Disclosed are fluoropolymers with low CWST values and porous membranes made from the fluoropolymers. The fluoropolymer is made up of polymerized monomeric units of the formula A-XCH.sub.2B, wherein A is C.sub.6F.sub.13(CH.sub.2).sub.2, X is O or S, and B is vinylphenyl, and the fluoropolymer has a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of at least 100 Kd and/or a glass transition temperature of at least 33 C. copolymer. The porous membranes are suitable for degassing a variety of fluids.

Carbon nanotube (CNT) immobilized membranes for harvesting pure water from air include CNTs incorporated into a layer of super-absorbing polymer. The super-absorbing polymer may be cast over a porous substrate. The super-absorbing polymer binds strongly to water and generates water clusters while the CNTs are operable to interrupt the specific water-polymer and water-water interactions to generate more free water which permeates more easily through the membrane. Methods of forming the CNT immobilized membranes are provided. The CNT immobilized membranes disclosed herein exhibit improved water vapor extraction efficiency, water vapor removal and mass transfer coefficient.

A low cost, high selectivity asymmetric polyimide/polyethersulfone (PES) blend hollow fiber membrane, a method of making the membrane and its use for a variety of liquid, gas, and vapor separations such as deep desulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuels, ethanol/water separations, pervaporation dehydration of aqueous/organic mixtures, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, O.sub.2/N.sub.2, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, olefin/paraffin, iso/normal paraffins separations, and other light gas mixture separations. The polyimide/PES blend hollow fiber membrane is fabricated from a blend of a polyimide polymer and PES and showed surprisingly unique gas separation property with higher selectivities than either the polyimide hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer or the PES hollow fiber membrane without PES polymer for gas separations such as for H.sub.2/CH.sub.4, He/CH.sub.4, H.sub.2S/CH.sub.4, CO.sub.2/CH.sub.4 separations.

A method is provided for making a porous inorganic membrane by using a mixture of an inorganic material, organic polymer particles and a solvent to form a slurry, the particles being non-spherical, distributing the slurry onto a surface, drying the slurry to remove the solvent and firing the dried slurry to produce the porous inorganic membrane. Examples of organic polymer particles include particles of acrylic. A substrate with a porous inorganic membrane disposed on the substrate is also provided, the inorganic membrane having an average thickness of from about 0.5 micron to about 30 microns, a porosity of from about 30% to about 65%, a median pore size (d50) of from about 0.01 micron to about 1 micron, and a value of (d90?d10)/d50 less than about 2, as measured by mercury porosimetry. An example of a substrate includes an inorganic porous support.

Provided is a method for manufacturing a sheet-shaped separation membrane that allows a sheet-shaped separation membrane having uniform separating ability to be manufactured at a high speed, the method comprising manufacturing a sheet-shaped separation membrane by forming a microporous layer on a porous substrate, wherein the method is characterized in having: a membrane-forming solution application step of coating a porous substrate with a membrane-forming solution in which a polymer is dissolved in a solvent, a congealing liquid application step of applying a congealing liquid by a liquid membrane drop method to the porous substrate coated with the membrane-forming solution, and a solvent removal step of removing the solvent from the congealed microporous layer.

A separation membrane that is an ultrapure water membrane; a food and/or beverage processing membrane; a municipal water membrane; a peel oil recovery membrane; a (bio) refinery dewatering membrane; an oily wastewater (pre-) treatment membrane; a metal extraction membrane; a desalination membrane; and/or a protein fraction membrane. The membrane includes a porous substrate layer and an active layer arranged over at least a part of the substrate layer. The active layer includes a hydrophilic agent and a superhydrophilic agent. Also described is a method of producing the separation membrane.

A method of synthesizing a mixed matrix membrane (MMM) film. The method includes: synthesizing a polymer including a polynorbornene or a polytricyclononene; synthesizing covalent-triazine frameworks (CTFs); preparing a polymer solution by dissolving the polymer in a first solvent; preparing a filler solution by dispersing the CTFs in a second solvent; adding the polymer solution to the filler solution while stirring the filler solution, forming a casting solution; pouring the casting solution into a membrane support; and drying the poured casting solution in the membrane support to form the MMM film including the CTFs.

The present invention belongs to the technical field of membrane-based water treatment and relates to a novel guanidine-based composite nanofiltration (NF) flat-sheet membrane, and a preparation method and application thereof. The present invention provides a method for preparing a guanidine-based composite NF flat-sheet membrane, where a dense separation layer is formed on the surface of a polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membrane through polymerization reaction between the amino group of 1,3-diaminoguanidine and the acyl chloride group of trimesoyl chloride. Under suitable reaction conditions, the guanidine-based composite NF membrane obtained according to the present invention enables effective separation of multivalent ions over a wide pH range, with a rejection rate of over 96% for 1000 ppm of MgSO.sub.4 solution, and can operate continuously and stably in a mixed ions solution with a wide pH.

A monolayer membrane containing gelling polymer particles having at least one of a basic functional group and an acidic functional group, and having a thickness of less than 5 m. A composite having a porous carrier and gelling polymer particles having at least any one of a basic functional group and an acidic functional group and filling up the surface pores of the porous carrier. The invention can provide a novel material capable of efficiently separating an acid gas from a mixed gas.