The present invention relates to the development and fabrication of thin-film polymer composite materials containing vertically aligned nanopores. The present invention provides methods of aligning nanopores in a polymeric film. The present invention also provides composite materials and methods of fabricating composite materials containing vertically aligned nanopores.

A fluid separation membrane has high compression strength in the fiber cross-section direction (direction orthogonal to the fiber axis). The fluid separation membrane is obtained by an organic polymer layer being formed on the surface of porous carbon fibers having a co-continuous porous structure. A fluid separation membrane module and porous carbon fibers having a fully co-continuous porous structure are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to a layered semipermeable membrane satisfying the conditions below. (A) The maximum peak intensity between 3700 and 2900 cm.sup.?1 is 0.08 or greater in the difference spectrum between an IR spectrum measured at 25? C. and 97% relative humidity and an IR spectrum measured at 25? C. and 3% relative humidity. (B) The peak top wavenumber between 3700 and 2900 cm.sup.?1 of the aforementioned difference spectrum is 3400 cm.sup.?1 to 3550 cm.sup.?1. (C) The N1s peak has a maximum value at 401 eV or greater in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in which X-rays are radiated to a coat layer.

Provided is a gas separation membrane containing polysaccharides and being characterized by having a crystallinity of 17% or lower, the crystallinity being represented by equation (1) below: (1) Crystallinity (%)=[I.sub.c/(I.sub.c+I.sub.a)]?100 (In equation (1), I.sub.c is the sum of the integrals of the scattering intensities of crystalline peaks obtained from X-ray diffraction analysis of the gas separation membrane, and I.sub.a is the sum of the integrals of the scattering intensities of the amorphous halo).

Electrospun poly(acrylic) acid (PAA)/poly(vinyl) alcohol PVA nanofibers and integrated filtration membranes generated therefrom are disclosed herein. The membranes are suitable for use in selectively removing heavy metals such as lead and cadmium from water. The surface of the nanofibers is preferably functionalized with one or more chelating agents. The membranes have a high removal efficiency and adsorption capacity with well-distributed high-density heavy metal adsorption sites with strong binding affinities for targeted heavy metals.

Disclosed are a preparation method, a product and an application of a hydrophobically modified membrane based on multi-effect thermal energy conversion, the preparation method includes the steps: S1. dispersing carbon nanotubes with surfaces carboxylated in a solvent to form a dispersion; S2. applying the dispersion evenly on a PVDF membrane, and drying to form a ready-to-use membrane; S3. performing thermo-mechanical pressure treatment of the ready-to-use membrane to form a functional membrane with strong robustness; and S4. placing the functional membrane with strong robustness in an alkane solution of PDMS containing a silane coupling agent, and then taking it out for drying.

The present invention relates to a forward osmosis-based separation membrane based on a multilayer thin film, using crosslinking between organic monomers, and a preparation method therefore, and in the preparation of the forward osmosis-based separation membrane including a support layer and a selective layer, a middle layer is provided between the support layer and the selective layer so as to prevent a phenomenon in which the selective layer is filled in a pore of the support layer, such that the thickness of a multilayer thin film constituting the selective layer is optimized, and excellent water permeability, salt removal rate and pollution resistance properties are exhibited through the support layer having a structure of uniform surface pores and minimized pore distortion.

A thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membrane includes a porous support with surfaces having thereon a hydrophilic self-assembled monolayer. An active layer on the support is sufficiently dense to remove an ionic species from a liquid.

A composite material is described that is an effective filter to separate oil from an oil and water emulsion or other mixtures of oil and water. The composite material has a permeable substrate, such as fabric, that is coated with a selectively-permeable coating. The composite material allows only oil to pass through, while water is prevented from passing through. The composite material has two main components, a hydrophobic component and an emulsion-destabilizing component.

The present invention relates to a preparation process for a thin film composite (TFC) membrane (hereinafter TFC membrane), and provides a method for the preparation of a membrane through a one-step process using a dual (double layer)-slot coating technique. In the dual (double layer)-slot coating process according to the present invention, a TFC membrane can be prepared by: forming a double-solution layer through a one-step process of performing simultaneous applying/contact of two immiscible solutions, in which two kinds of reactive organic monomers are dissolved, on a porous support; and synthesizing a selective layer through a crosslinking reaction between the organic monomers at an interface of the double layer.