Dye-sensitized ion-pumping membranes and methods of preparing said membranes are described herein. A regenerative and reversible photoactive dye is covalently-bonded to membrane or separator for ion-pumping. The photoactive dye-functionalized membranes can be arranged with other ion-exchange membranes, which serve as selective contacts to afford photovoltaic action and therefore form a power-producing membrane that pumps ions for use in driving an ion-exchange or ion-transport process, such as desalination and electrodialysis.

Provided is a novel continuous single-step method of manufacturing a multilayer sorbent polymeric membrane having superior productivity, properties and performance. At least one layer of the polymeric membrane comprises sorbent materials and a plurality of interconnecting pores. The method includes: (a) coextruding layer-forming compositions to form a multilayer coextrudate; (b) casting the coextrudate into a film; (c) extracting the film with an extractant; and (d) removing the extractant from the extracted film to form the multilayer sorbent polymeric membrane. The sorbent membrane of this disclosure can find a wide range of applications for use in filtration, separation and purification of gases and fluids, CO.sub.2 and volatile capture, structural support, vehicle emission control, energy harvesting and storage, electrolyte batteries. device, protection, permeation, packaging, printing, and etc.

Disclosed are an integrated composite filter cartridge (200) and a water purifying system (300) having same. The integrated composite filter cartridge (200) comprises: an outer shell (20), wherein a chamber (21) is defined in the outer shell (20), and the outer shell (20) is provided with a raw water inlet (22), a pre-treated water outlet (23), a pre-treated water inlet (24), a purified water outlet (25) and a waste water outlet (26) which are in communication with the chamber (21); a pre-treatment filter cartridge (100); a central pipe (30); a filter membrane (40); and a control member, which is connected to the pre-treated water outlet (23) and the pre-treated water inlet (24). When the integrated composite filter cartridge (200) is used for the first time, the control member switches on the raw water inlet (22) and the pre-treated water outlet (23) and switches off the pre-treated water inlet (24).

A filter includes a fibrous substrate having a plurality of coextruded first polymer material fibers and second polymer material fibers. Each of the first and second fibers are separated from each other and have a rectangular cross-section defined in part by an additional encapsulating polymer material that is separated from the first polymer material fibers and second polymer material fibers. The fibrous substrate has a pore size range of between about 0.1 m to about 0.4 m.

There is provided a composite gas separation membrane including a gas separation layer, which is formed to include a polyimide resin, on a support layer having gas permeability, in which the polyimide resin includes a repeating unit represented by the following Formula (I) ##STR00001## in Formula (I), X represents a group having a specific structure represented by any of the following Formulae (I-a) to (I-h), ##STR00002## in Formula (I), Y.sup.1 represents a group represented by the following Formula (II-a) or (II-b), and ##STR00003## in Formulae (II-a) and (II-b), R.sup.3 represents a substituent group, A represents a dissociable group, p represents 0 or 1, p1 represents an integer of 0 to 2, and p2 represents an integer of 2 or greater.

The present invention relates to chlorine resistant polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes which can be used as reverse osmosis, forward osmosis or nanofiltration membranes for applications such as desalination and water purification and methods of making membranes of this type.

A composite membrane includes a hydrophobic porous membrane and a high water content hydrogel layer disposed on the surface of the hydrophobic porous membrane facing the hot end. The surface active agents contained in the wastewater at the hot end are blocked by the high water content hydrogel layer, thus the problem of pore wetting of the hydrophobic porous membrane can be prevented. Therefore, the membrane distillation technique can be utilized for processing wastewater containing surface active agents.

A gas separation membrane has a gas separation layer containing a poly(benzoxazole-imide) compound in which the poly(benzoxazole-imide) compound having structural units represented by General formulae (I) and (II), or structural units represented by General formulae (I), (II) and (III) satisfies a specific molar quantity condition.

##STR00001##

In the formulae, X and Y each represent a single bond or a specific divalent linking group; L represents a specific divalent linking group including a phenylene group; and R represents a specific group. A gas separation module and a gas separation method use the gas separation membrane. A gas separation apparatus includes the gas separation module.

A gas separation membrane has a gas separation layer containing a cellulose resin, and an organopolysiloxane compound layer disposed on the gas separation layer in which Si ratio of the organopolysiloxane compound layer after immersion in chloroform to the organopolysiloxane compound layer before immersion in chloroform, the Si ratio being calculated by Mathematical expression (I), is 0.6 to 1.0.

Si ratio=(SiK X-ray intensity after immersion in chloroform)/(SiK X-ray intensity before immersion in chloroform)Mathematical expression (I)

Perforating graphene and other two-dimensional materials with holes inclusively having a desired size range, a narrow size distribution, and a high hole density can be difficult to achieve. A layer in continuous contact with graphene, graphene-based materials and other two-dimensional materials can help promote hole formation. Processes for perforating a two-dimensional material can include exposing to an ion source a two-dimensional material in continuous contact with at least one layer, and interacting a plurality of ions from the ion source with the two-dimensional material and with the at least one layer. The ion source may be a broad ion beam.